The science of fairy tales : an inquiry into fairy mythology

GONTEMPOF •-;••••
SCIENCE SERJE,

THE SCIENCE

OF FAIRY TALES

The Contemporary Science Series.

I. THE EVOLUTION OF SEX. By Professo* PATRICK GEDDES and

J. ARTHUR THOMSON. With 90 Illustrations. Second Edition.
" The authors have brought to the task — as indeed their names guarantee
—a wealth of knowledge, a luoid and attractive method of treatment, and a
rich vein of picturesque language."— Nature.

IL ELECTRICITY IN MODERN LIFE. By G. W. DB TCNZELMANW.

With S3 Illustrations.

" A clearly-written and connected sketch of what is known about electricity
and magnetism, the more prominent modern applications, and the principles
on which they are based."— Saturday Review.

III. THE ORIGIN OF THE ARYANS. By Dr. ISAAC TAYLOR. Illus-

trated. Second Edition.

" Canon Taylor is probably the most encyclopaedic all-round scholar now
living. His new volume on the Origin of the Aryans is a first-rate example of
the excellent account to which he can turn his exceptionally wide and varied
information. . . . Masterly and exhaustive." — Pall Mall Gazette.

IV. PHYSIOGNOMY AND EXPRESSION. By P. MANTEOAZZA.

Illustrated.

"Professor Mantegazza is a writer full of life and spirit, and the natural
attractiveness of his subject is not destroyed by his scientific handling of it."
— Literary World (Boston).

V. EVOLUTION AND DISEASE. By J. B. SCTTON, FR.C.S. With

135 Illustrations.

"The book is as interesting as a novel, without sacrifice of accuracy or
system, and is calculated to give an appreciation of the fundamentals of
pathology to the lay reader, while forming a useful collection of illustrations
of disease for medical reference."— Journal of Mental Science.

VI. THE VILLAGE COMMUNITY. By G. L. GOMME. Illustrated.

" The fruit of some years of investigation on a subject which has of late
attracted much attention, and is of much importance, inasmuch as it lies at
the basis of our society." — Antiquary.

VIL THE CRIMINAL. By HAVELOCK ELLIS. Illustrated.

"An ably written, an instructive, and a most entertaining book."— Law
Quarterly Review.

VIII. SANITY AND INSANITY. By Dr. CHARLES MERCIER. Illus-
trated.

" Taken as a whole, it is the brightest book on the physical side of mental
science published in our time." — Pall Mall Gazette.

IX. HYPNOTISM. By Dr. ALBERT MOLL. Second Edition.

" Marks a step of some importance in the study of some difficult physio,
logical and psychological problems which have not yet received much atten-
tion in the scientific world of England." — Nature.

X. MANUAL TRAINING. By Dr. C. M. WOODWARD, Director of the

Manual Training School, St. Louis. Illustrated.

" There is no greater authority on the subject than Professor Woodward."—
Manchester Guardian.

XI. THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES. By E. SIDNEY HARTLAND.

" Mr. Hartland's book will win the sympathy of all earnest students, both
by the knowledge it displays, and by a thorough love and appreciation of his
subject, which is evident throughout." — Spectator.

XII. PRIMITIVE FOLK. By ELIE RECLUS.

" For an introduction to the study of the questions of property, marriage,
government, religion,— in a word, to the evolution of society,— this little
volume will be found most convenient."— Scottish Leader.

XIII. THE EVOLUTION OP MARRIAGE. By Professor LBTOURNEAT/.
" Among the distinguished French students of sociology, Professor Letour-

neau has long stood in the first rank. He approaches the great study of man
free from bias and shy of generalisations. To collect, scrutinise, and appraise
facts la his chief business." — Science.

XIV. BACTERIA AND THEIR PRODUCTS. By Dr. G. SIMS WOOD-
HEAD. Illustrated.

"An excellent summary of the present state of knowledge of the subject."—
Lancet.

XV. EDUCATION AND HEREDITY. By J. M. GUYAU.

"It is at once a treatise on sociology, ethics, and pedagogics. It fa
doubtful whether among all the ardent evolutionists who have had their say
on the moral and the educational question any one has carried forward the
new doctrine so boldly to its extreme logical consequence."— Professor
SULLY in Hind.

XVI. THE MAN OF GENIUS. By Professor LOMBROSO. Illustrated.
"By far the most comprehensive and fascinating collection of facts and

generalisations concerning genius which has yet been brought together." —
Journal of Mental Science.

XVH. THE GRAMMAR OF SCIENCE. By KARL PEARSON, M.A.,

Gresham Professor of Geometry. Illustrated.

" The problems discussed with great ability and lucidity, and often in a
most suggestive manner, by Prof. Pearson, are such as should interest all
students of natural science." — Natural Science.

XVIH. PROPERTY : ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT. By Pro-
fessor LETOURNEAD.

" M. Let ourneau has read a great deal, and he seems to us to have selected
and interpreted his facts with considerable judgment and learning." — Wett-
mintUr Review.

XIX. VOLCANOES: PAST AND PRESENT. By EDWARD HULL, M.A.,
LL.D., F.R.S. With 45 Illustrations.

"A very readable account of the phenomena of volcanoes and earth-
quakes."— Mature.

XX. PUBLIC HEALTH. By Dr. J. F. J. SYKES. With numerous
Illustrations.

"Takes up essential points in evolution, environment, prophylaxis, and
sanitation bearing upon- the preservation of public health." — Lancet.

XXI. MODERN METEOROLOGY. By FRANK WALDO, Ph.D., etc.
With 112 Illustrations^.

" The present volume is the best on the subject for general use that we
have seen." — Daily Telegraph.

XXII. THE GERM-PLASM : A THEORY OP HEREDITY. By Dr. A.
WEISMANN. Illustrated.

"There has been no work published since Darwin's own books which has
brought to light so many new facts." — British Medical Journal.

XXIII. INDUSTRIES OF ANIMALS. By F. HOUSSAY. Illustrated.
"His accuracy is undoubted, yet his facts out-marvel all romance. These

facts are here made use of as materials wherewith to form the mighty fabric
of evolution."— Manchester Guardian.

XXIV. MAN AND WOMAN : A STUDY OF HUMAN SECONDARY
SEXUAL CHARACTERS. By HAVELOCK ELLIS. With Illustrations.

"This striking and important volume . . . should place Mr. Havelock Ellis
in the first rank of scientific thinkers of the time." — Westminster Review.

XXV. THE EVOLUTION OF MODERN CAPITALISM. A STUDY OP
MACHINE PRODUCTION. By JOHN A. HOBSON, M.A. With Diagrams.

XXVI. APPARITIONS AND THOUGHT-TRANSFERENCE: OR, THE
COMMUNICATION OF SENSATIONS, IDEAS, AND EMOTIONS OTHERWISE

THAN BY THE KNOWN SENSES. By FRANK PODMORE. Illustrated.

THE CONTEMPORARY SCIENCE SERIES.
EDITED BY HAVELOCK ELLIS.

THE SCIENCE OF fFAIRY TALES.

THE SCIENCE

AN INQUIRY INTO FAIRY MYTHOLOGY.

EDWIN SIDNEY HARTLAND,
FELLOW OF THE SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES.

LONDON :

WALTER SCOTT,

24, WARWICK LANE, PATERNOSTER ROW.
1891.

Annex

S5D

PREFACE.

THE chief object of this volume is to exhibit, in a
manner acceptable to readers who are not specialists,
the application of the principles and methods which
guide investigations into popular traditions to a few of
the most remarkable stories embodying the Fairy super-
stitions of the Celtic and Teutonic peoples. Some of
the subjects discussed have already been dealt with by
more competent inquirers. But even in these cases
I have sometimes been able to supply additional illus-
trations of the conclusions previously arrived at, and
occasionally, I hope, to carry the argument a step or
two ifurther than had been done before. I have thus
tried to render the following pages not wholly valueless
to students.

A portion of the book incorporates the substance of
some articles which I contributed to " The Archaeological
Review " and " Folk-Lore." But these have been to a
considerable extent re-written ; and it is hoped that in
the process wider and more accurate generalizations have
been attained.

My hearty thanks are due to the various friends whose
generous assistance has been recorded in the footnotes,
and especially to Professor Dr. George Stephens, the
veteran antiquary of the North, and Mr. W. G.
Fretton, who have not measured their pains on behalf
of one whose only claim on them was a common desire
to pry into the reces&0fi(r^s£.Ql am under still

VI PREFACE.

deeper obligations to Mr. G. L. Gomme, F.S.A., who has
S3 readily acceded to my request that he would read the
proof-sheets, and whose suggestions have repeatedly been
of the greatest value ; and to Mr. Havelock Ellis for the
counsel and suggestions which his experience has more
than once enabled him to give as the book was passing
through the press.

I have been anxious to enable the reader who cares to
do so to verify every statement made ; but some of
them no doubt have escaped reference. Many books
are cited again and again, and in similar cases the
reader's time is frequently wasted in searching for the
first mention of a book, so as to ascertain its title and
other particulars. To avoid the trouble I have so many
times experienced in this way, I have put together in
an Appendix a list of the principal authorities made use
of, indicating them by the short title by which they are
cited in the footnotes, and giving sufficient bibliographical
details to enable them to be identified. Classics and
works which are in every one's hands I have not thought
it necessary to include in the list.

E. S. H.

BARNWOOD COURT, GLOUCESTER,
2^(h October, 1890.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING...

CHAPTER II.

-SAVAGE IDEAS

CHAPTER III.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN M1DWIYES ... ... 37

CHAPTER IV.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES (tOtlltnuea) ... 59

CHAPTER V.
CHANGELINGS ... ... ... ... ... 93

CHAPTER VI.
ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND ... . . ... 135

CHAPTER VII.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND , . l6l

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND

(continued) ... ... ... ... ... 196

CHAPTER IX.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND

(continued} ... ... ... ... ... 222

CHAPTER X.
SWAN-MAIDENS ... ... ... ... ... 255

CHAPTER XI.
SWAN-MAIDENS (continued') ... ... ... ... 283

CHAPTER XII.
CONCLUSION

APPENDIX 353

INDEX , ... ... 367

THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES,

CHAPTER I,

THE ART OK STORY*T£LLING.

The art of story-telling — Unity of human imagination — Definition of
Fairy Tales — Variable value of Tradition — Story-telling and the
story-teller among various peoples — The connection of folk-tales
%vilh folk-songs — Continuity of Tradition — Need of accuracy and
good faith in reporting stories.

"7 THE art of story-telling has been cultivated in all ages
and among all nations of which we have any record ; it
is the outcome of an instinct implanted universally in the
human mind. By means of a story the savage philo-
sopher accounts for his own existence and that of all the
phenomena which surround him. With a story the
mothers of the wildest tribes awe their little ones into
silence, or rouse them into delight. And the weary
hunters beguile the long silence of a desert night with
the mirth and wonders of a tale. The imagination is not
less fruitful in the higher races ; and, passing through
forms sometimes more, sometimes less, serious, the art of
story-telling unites with the kindred arts of dance and
song to form the epic or the drama, or develops under
the complex influences of modern life into the prose
romance and the novel. These in their various ways
are its ultimate expression ; and the loftiest genius has

2

2 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

found no fitter vehicle to convey its lessons of truth and

beauty.

But even in the most refined products of the imagina-
tion the same substances are found which compose the
rudest. Something has, of course, been dropped in the
process ; and where we can examine the process stage by
stao-e, we can discern the point whereat each successive
portion has been purged away. But much has also been
gained. To change the figure, it is like the continuous
development of living things, amorphous at first, by and
by shooting out into monstrous growths, unwieldy and
half-organized, anon settling into compact and beautiful
shapes of subtlest power and most divine suggestion. But
the last state contains nothing more than was either
obvious or latent in the first. Man's imagination, like
every other known power, works by fixed laws, the
existence and operation of which it is possible to trace ;
and it works upon the same material, — the external
universe, the mental and moral constitution of man and
his social relations. Hence, diverse as may seem at first
sight the results among the cultured Europeans and the
debased Hottentots, the philosophical Hindoos and the
Red Indians of the Far West, they present, on a close
examination, features absolutely identical. The outlines
of a story-plot among savage races are wilder and more
unconfined ; they are often a vast unhidebound corpse,
but one that bears no distant resemblance to forms we
think more reasonable only because we find it difficult to
let ourselves down to the level of savage ignorance, and
to lay aside the data of thought which have been won for
us by the painful efforts of civilization. The incidents,
making all due allowance for these differences and those
of climate and physical surroundings, are not merely
alike ; they are often indistinguishable. It cannot, of
course, be expected that the characters of the actors in
these stories will be drawn with skill, or indeed that any
attention will be paid to them. Character-study is a

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 3

late development. True : we ought not to overlook the
fact that we have to do with barbarous ideals. In a
rudimentary state of civilization the passions, like the
arts, are distinguished not by subtlety and complexity,
but by simplicity and violence of contrast. This may
account to some extent for what seems to us repulsive,
inconsistent or impossible. But we must above all things
beware of crediting the story-teller with that degree of
conscious art which is only possible in an advanced
culture and under literary influences. Indeed, the re-
searches Avhich are constantly extending the history of
human civilization into a remoter and remoter past, go
everywhere to show that storytelling is an inevitable and
wholly unconscious growth, probably arising, as we shall
see in the next chapter, out of narratives believed to
record actual events.

I need not stop now to illustrate this position, which is
no new one, and the main lines of which I hope will be
rendered apparent in the course of this volume. But it
is necessary, perhaps, to point out that, although these
are the premises from which I start, the limitations im-
posed by a work of the size and pretensions of this one
will not allow me to traverse more than a very small
corner of the field here opened to view. It is, therefore,
not my intention to attempt any formal proof of the
foregoing generalizations. Rather I hope that if any
reader deem it proper to require the complete evidence
on which they rest, he will be led to further investigations
on his OAvn behalf. His -feet, I can promise him, will
wander along flowery paths, where every winding will
bring him fresh surprises, and every step discover new
sources of enjoyment.

The stories with which we shall deal in the following
pages are vaguely called Fairy Tales. These we may
define to be : Traditionary narratives not in their present
form relating to beings held to be divine, nor to cosmo-
logical or national events, but in which the supernatural

4 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

plays an essential part. It will be seen that literary talcs,
such as those of Hans Andersen and Lord Brabourne,
based though they often are upon tradition, are excluded
from Fairy Tales as thus defined. Much no doubt might
b6 said both interesting and instructive concerning these
brilliant works. But it would be literary criticism, a
thing widely different from the scientific treatment of
Fairy Tales. The Science of Fairy Tales is concerned
with tradition, and not with literature. It finds its
subjects in the stories Avhich have descended from mouth
to mouth from an unknown past ; and if reference be
occasionally made to works of conscious literary art, the
value of such works is not in the art they display, but the
evidence they yield of the existence of given tales in
certain forms at periods and places approximately capable
of determination : evidence, in a word, which appro-
priates and fixes a pre-existing tradition. But even in
this they are inferior in importance to historical or topo-
graphical works, where we frequently meet with records
of the utmost importance in considering the origin and
meaning of Folk-tales.

Literature, in short, of whatever kind, is of no value to
the student of Fairy Tales, as that phrase is here used,
save as a witness to Tradition. Tradition itself, however,
is variable in value, if regard be had alone to purity and
originality. For a tribe may conceivably be so isolated
that it is improbable that any outside influence can have
affected its traditions for a long series of generations ; or
on the other hand it may be in the highway of nations.
It may be physically of a type unique and unalloyed by
foreign blood ; or it may be the progeny of a mingling of
all the races on the earth. Now it is obvious that if we
desire to reason concerning the wide distribution, or the
innate and necessary character of any idea, or of any
story, the testimony of a given tribe or class of men will
vary in proportion to its segregation from other tribes
and classes : where we can with most probability exclude

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 5

outside influence as a factor in its mental evolution, there
we shall gather evidence of the greatest value for the
purpose of our argument.

Again : some nations have developed the art of story-
telling more highly than others, since some stages of
civilization are more favourable to this development than
others, and all nations are not in the same stage. The
further question may, therefore, be put whether these
various stages of development may not produce differences
of manner in story-telling — differences which may in-
dicate, if they do not cause, deep-seated differences in the
value of the traditions themselves. To make my meaning
clear : a people which requires its story-tellers to relate
their stories in the very words in which they have been
conveyed from time immemorial, and allows no deviation,
will preserve its traditions with the least possible blemish
and the least possible change. In proportion as latitude
in repetition is permitted and invention is allowed to
atone for want of memory, tradition will change and
become uncertain. Such latitude may be differently
encouraged by different social states. A social state is
part of, and inseparable from, the sum total of arts,
knowledge, organization and customs which we call the
civilization, or the stage of civilization, of a people. It
may be worth while to spend a short time in examining
the mode of story-telling and the requirements of a
story-teller among nations in different stages of civili-
zation. We shall thus endeavour to appreciate the
differences in the manner of telling, and to ascertain in
general terms how far these differences affect the value of
the traditions.

If we turn first to some of the Celtic nations, we find a
social state in which the art of story-telling has received
a high degree of attention. The late Mr. J. F. Campbell,
to whom the science of Folklore owes an incalculable
debt, describes a condition of things in the Western
Highlands extremely favourable to the cultivation of

6 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

folk-tales. Quoting from one of his most assiduous
collectors, he says that most of the inhabitants of Barra
and South Uist are Roman Catholics, unable to speak
English or to read or write. Hence it is improbable that
they can have borrowed much from the literature of
other nations. Among these people in the long winter
nights the recitation of tales is very common. They
gather in crowds at the houses of those who are reputed
to be good tale-tellers. Their stories frequently relate to
the exploits of the Ossianic heroes, of whose existence
they are as much convinced as ordinary English folk are
of the existence and deeds of the British army in its
most recent wars. During the tales " the emotions of the
reciters are occasionally very strongly excited, and so also
are those of the listeners, almost shedding tears at one
time, and giving way to loud laughter at another. A
good many of them firmly believe in all the extravagance
of these stories." Another of his collectors, a self-
educated workman in the employ of the Duke of Argyll,
writing more than thirty years ago to him, speaks of
what used to take place about Loch Lomond upwards of
fifty years before — that is to say, about the beginning of
the present century. The old people then would pass
the winter evenings telling each other traditional stories.
These chiefly concerned freebooters, and tribal raids and
quarrels, and included descriptions of the manners, dress
and weapons of their ancestors and the hardships they
had to endure. The youngsters also would gather, and
amuse themselves with games or the telling of tales of a
more romantic cast. But the chief story-tellers appear to
have been the tailors and shoemakers, who were literally
journeymen, going from house to house in search of work.
As they travelled about, they picked up great numbers of
tales, which they repeated ; " and as the country people
made the telling of these tales, and listening to hear
them, their winter night's amusement, scarcely any part
of them would be lost/' In these tales Gaelic words were

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 7

often used which had dropped out of ordinary parlance,
giving proof of careful adherence to the ancient forms ;
and the writer records that the previous year he had
heard a story told identical with one he had heard forty
years before from a different man thirty miles away ; and
this story contained old Gaelic words the meaning of
Avhich the teller did not know. A gamekeeper from
Ross-shire also testified to similar customs at his native
place : the assemblies of the young to hear their elders
repeat, on winter nights, the tales they had learned from
their fathers before them, and the renown of the tra-
velling tailor and shoemaker. When a stranger came to
the village it was the signal for a general gathering at the
house where he stayed, to listen to his tales. The good-
man of the house usually began with some favourite tale,
and the stranger was expected to do the rest. It was a
common saying : " The first tale by the goodman, and
tales to daylight by the guest." The minister, however,
came to the village in 1830, and the schoolmaster soon
followed, with the inevitable result of putting an end to
these delightful times.1

Not very different is the account given by M. Luzel
of the Vertices in which he has often taken part in
Brittany. In the lonely farmhouse after the evening
meal prayers are said, and the life in Breton of the saint
of the day read, all the family assemble with the
servants and labourers around the old-fashioned hearth,
where the fire of oaken logs spirts and blazes, defying the
wind and the rain or snow without. The talk is of the
oxen and the horses and the work of the season. The
women are at their wheels ; and while they spin they sing
love ditties, or ballads of more tragic or martial tone.
The children running about grow tired of their games,
and of the tedious conversation of their elders, and
demand a tale, it matters not what, of giants, or goblins,
or witches — nay, even of ghosts. They are soon gratified ;
1 Campbell, vol. i. pp. xii. xiv. Ivii.

8 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and if an old man, as frequently happens, be the narrator,
he is fortified and rewarded for the toil by a mug of cider
constantly replenished. One such depositary of tradition
is described as a blind beggar, a veritable Homer in
wooden shoon, with an inexhaustible memory of songs
and tales of every kind. He was welcome everywhere,
in the well-to-do farmhouse as in the humble cottage.
He stayed as long as he pleased, sometimes for whole
weeks ; and it was with reluctance that he was allowed
to leave in order to become for a time the charm of
another fireside, where he was always awaited with im-
patience.1

M. Braga, the Portuguese scholar, quotes an old French
writer, Jean le Chapelain, as recording a custom in Nor-
mandy similar to that of Ross-shire, that the guest was
always expected to repay hospitality by telling tales or
singing songs to his host. And he states that the
emigrants from Portugal to Brazil took this custom with
them. In Gascony M. Arnaudin formed his collection of
tales a few years ago by assisting at gatherings like those
just described in Brittany, as well as at marriages and at
various agricultural festivals.2

Similar customs existed in Wales within living
memory, and in remote districts they probably exist
to-day. If they do not now continue in England, it is at
least certain that our forefathers did not differ in this
respect from their neighbours. A writer of the seven-
teenth century, in enumerating the causes of upholding
" the damnable doctrine of witchcraft," mentions : " Old
wives' fables, who sit talking and chatting of many false
old stories of Witches and Fairies and Robin Good-
fellow, and walking spirits and the dead walking again ;
all of which lying fancies people are more naturally
inclined to listen after than to the Scriptures." And if
we go further back we find in chapter civ. of the

1 Luzel, " Veillees,"/aj-j-m.

* Introduction to Romero, p. x. ; Arnaudin, p. 5.

THE ART OP STORY-TELLING. 9

printed editions of the "Gesta Romanorum " an in-
teresting picture of domestic life. The whole family is
portrayed gathering round the fire in the winter evenings
and beguiling the time by telling stories. Such we are
informed was the custom among the higher classes. It
was, indeed, the custom among all classes, not only in
England but on the Continent, throughout the Middle
Ages. The eminent French antiquary, Paul Lacroix,
speaks of wakes, or evening parties, where fairy tales and
other superstitions were propagated, as having a very
ancient origin. He states that they are still (as we have
already seen in Brittany and Gascony) the custom in
most of the French provinces, and that they formed
important events in the private lives of the peasants.1

It is difficult to sever the occasion and mode of the
tale-telling from the character of the teller ; nor would
it be wise to do so. And in this connection it is interest-
ing to pause for a moment on Dr. Pitre's description of
Agatuzza Messia, the old woman from whom he derived
so large a number of the stories in his magnificent col-
lection, and whom he regarded as a model story-teller. I
am tempted to quote his account at length. " Anything
but beautiful," he says, "she has facile speech, efficacious
phrases, an attractive manner of telling, whence you
divine her* extraordinary memory and the sallies of her
natural wit. Messia already reckons her seventy years,
and is a mother, grandmother, and great grandmother.
As a child, she was told by her grandmother an infinity
of tales which she had learned from her mother, and she
in turn from her grandfather ; she had a good memory
and never forgot them. There are women who have
heard hundreds of tales and remember none ; and there
are others who, though they remember them, have not
the grace of narration. Among her companions of the

1 Thomas Acly, "A Candle in the Dark" (1656) (Cf. Aubrey,
" Remaines," p. 67) ; " Gesta Romanorum," Introd.. p. xxv.
(E..E.T.S.) ; Lacroix, p. 100.

10 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRV TALES.

Borgo, a quarter of Palermo, Messia enjoyed the reputa-
tion of a fine story-teller ; and the more one heard her,
the more one desired to hear. Almost half a century ago
she was obliged to go with her husband to Messina, and
lived there some time : a circumstance, this, worthy of
note, since our countrywomen never go away from their
own district save from the gravest necessity. Returning
to her native home, she spoke of things of which the
gossips of the neighbourhood could not speak : she spoke
of the iCitadel, a fortress which no one could take, not
even the Turks themselves ; she spoke of the Pharos of
Messina, Avhich was beautiful, but dangerous for sailors ;
she spoke of Reggio in Calabria, which, facing the walls
of Messina, seemed to wish to touch hands Avith them ;
and she remembered and mimicked the pronunciation of
the Milazzesi, who spoke, Messia said, so curiously as to
make one laugh. All these reminiscences have remained
most vivid in her memory. She cannot read, but she
knows so many things that no one else knows, and
repeats them with a propriety of tongue that is a pleasure
to hear. This is a characteristic to which I call my
readers' attention. If the tale turns upon a vessel which
has to make a voyage, she utters, without remarking it,
or without seeming to do so, sailors' phrases, and words
which only seamen and those who have to do with
seamen are acquainted with. If the heroine arrives, poor
and desolate, at a baker's and takes a place there, Messia's
language is so completely that of the trade that you
would believe that the baking of bread had been her
business, whereas at Palermo this occupation, an ordinary
one in the families of the large and small communes of
the island, is that of professional bakers alone. ... As a
young woman Messia was a tailoress ; when through toil
her sight became weakened, she turned to sewing winter
quilts. But in the midst of this work, whereby she earns
her living, she finds time for the fulfilment of her religious
duties ; every day, winter and summer, in rain or snow,

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. II

in the gloaming she goes to her prayers. Whatever feast
is celebrated in the church, she is solicitous to attend :
Monday, she is at the Ponte dell' Ammiraglio praying
for the Souls of the Beheaded ; Wednesday, you find her
at San Giuseppe keeping the festival of the Madonna
della Providenza ; every Friday she goes to San Francesco
di Paola, reciting by the way her accustomed beads ; and
if one Saturday pass when she ought to go to the
Madonna dei Cappuccini, another does not ; and there
she prays with a devotion which none can understand
who has not experienced it. Messia witnessed my birth
and held me in her arms : hence I have been able to
collect from her mouth the many and beautiful traditions
to which her name is appended. She has repeated to the
grown man the tales she had told to the child thirty years
before ; nor has her narration lost a shade of the old
sincerity, vivacity, and grace. The reader will only find
the cold and naked words ; but Messia's narration con-
sists, more than in words, in the restless movement of the
eyes, in the waving of the arms, in the gestures of the
whole person, which rises, walks around the room, bends,
and is again uplifted, making her voice now soft, now
excited, now fearful, now sweet, now hoarse, as it por-
trays the voices of the various personages, and the action
which these are performing." J

Such a woman as is here described is a born story-
teller ; and her art, as exhibited in the tales attributed to
her in Dr. Pitre's collection, reaches perhaps the highest
point possible in tradition. " Women are usually the best
narrators of nursery tales. Most of the modern collec-
tions, from that of the brothers Grimm downwards, owe
their choicest treasures to women. In the Panjab, how-
ever, Captain Temple ascribes to children marvellous
power of telling tales, which he states they are not slow
to exercise after sunset, when the scanty evening meal is
done and they huddle together in their little beds beneath
1 Pitre, vol. iv. p. xvii.

12 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the twinkling stars, while the hot air cools, the mosquito
sings, and the village dogs bark at imaginary foes. The
Rev. Hinton Knowles' collection was gathered in Cash-
mere apparently from men and boys only ; but all classes
contributed, from the governor and the pandit down to
the barber and the day-labourer, the only qualification
being that they should be entirely free from European
influence.1

But nursery tales told simply for amusement are far
from being the only kind of traditional narrative.
Savage and barbarous races, to whom the art of writing
is unknown, are dependent upon memory for such
records as they have of their past ; and sometimes a
professional class arises to preserve and repeat the stories
believed to embody these records. Among the Maoris
and their Polynesian kinsmen the priests are the great
depositaries of tradition. It is principally from them
that Mr. White and the Rev. W. W. Gill have obtained
their collections. But the orators and chiefs are also fully
conversant with the narratives ; and their speeches are
filled with allusions to them, and with quotations from
ancient poems relating the deeds of their forefathers.
The difficulty of following such allusions, and conse-
quently of understanding the meaning of the chiefs when
addressing him on behalf of their fellow-countrymen,
first induced, or compelled, Sir George Grey, when
Governor of New Zealand, to make the inquiries whose
results are embodied in his work on Polynesian
Mythology. The Eskimo of Greenland, at the other
end of the world, divide their tales into two classes :
the ancient and the modern. The former may be con-
sidered, Dr. Rink says, as more or less the property of
the whole nation, while the latter are limited to certain
parts of the country, or even to certain people who claim
to be akin to one another. The art of telling these tales
is " practised by certain persons specially gifted in this
1 "Wide-awake Stories," p. I ; Knowles, p. ix.

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 13

respect ; and among a hundred people there may
generally be found one or two particularly favoured
with the art of the raconteur, besides several tolerable
narrators." It is the narrators of the ancient tales a who
compose the more recent stories by picking up the
occurrences and adventures of their latest ancestors,
handed down occasionally by some old members of the
family, and connecting and embellishing them by a
large addition of the supernatural, for which purpose
resort is always had to the same traditional and mystic
elements of the ancient folklore." *

But the art of story-telling has not everywhere given
rise to a professional class. When the Malagasy receive
friends at their houses, they themselves recount the
jieeds of their ancestors, which are handed down from
father to son, and form the principal topic of conver-
sation. So, too, the savage Ahts of Vancouver Island sit
round their fires singing and chatting ; u and the older
men, we are told, lying and bragging after the manner
of story-tellers, recount their feats in Avar, or the
chase, to a listening group." Mr. Im Thurn has
drawn an interesting picture of the habits at night
of the Indian tribes of Guiana. The men, if at home,
spend the greater part of the day in their hammocks,
smoking, " and leisurely fashioning arrow-heads, or some
such articles of use or of ornament. . . . When the
day has at last come to an end, and the women
have gathered together enough wood for the fires
during the night, they, too, throw themselves into their
hammocks ; and all talk together. Till far into the
night the men tell endless stories, sometimes droning
them out in a sort of monotonous chant, sometimes
delivering them with a startling amount of emphasis
and gesticulation. The boys and younger men add to
the noise by marching round the houses, blowing horns

1 White, vol. i. p. vi. ; Sir G. Grey, p. vii. ; Gill, p. xx. j Rink,
pp. 83, 85,

14 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and playing on flutes. There is but little rest to be
obtained in an Indian settlement by night. These
people sleep, as dogs do, without difficulty, for brief
periods, but frequently and indifferently by day or night
as may be convenient. The men, having slept at
intervals during the day, do not need night-rest ; the
women are not considered in the matter. At last, in the
very middle of their stories, the party drops off to sleep ;
and all is quiet for a short while. Presently some woman
gets up to renew the fires, or to see to some other
domestic work. Roused by the noise which she makes,
all the dogs of the settlement break into a chorus of
barks and yelps. This wakes the children, who begin
to scream. The men turn in their hammocks, and
immediately resume their stories, apparently from the
point at which they left off, and as if they had never
ceased. This time it is but a short interruption to the
silence of the night ; and before long everything again
becomes quiet, till some new outbreak is caused, much as
was the last. In the very middle of the night there are
perhaps some hours of quiet. But about an hour before
dawn, some of the men having to go out to hunt,
effectually wake everybody about them by playing flutes,
or beating drums, as they go to bathe before leaving the
settlement." z

But the folk-tale cannot be separated in this inquiry
from the folk-song with which, in its origin and develop-
ment, it is so closely connected. In India there are, or
were until recent years, everywhere professional bards ;
and the stories told in Indian villages are frequently the
substance of the chants of these bards. More than this,
the line between singing and narration is so faintly
drawn, that the bards themselves often interpose great
patches of prose between the metrical portions of their
recitations. Fairs, festivals, and marriages all over

1 Ellis, " History of Madagascar," vol. i. p. 264 ; Sproat, " Scenes
and Studies of Savage Life," p. 51 ; Im Thurn, pp. 215, 216.

.THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 15

India are attended by the bards, who are always already
to perform for pay and drink. Mr. Leland believes the
stories he obtained from the Christian Algonkins of New
England, concerning the ancient heroes of the race and
other mythical personages, to have once been delivered as
poems from generation to generation and always chanted.
The deeds of Maori Avarriors are handed down in song ;
just as we find in Beowulf, the story of Hrothgar's
ancestors was sung before his own companions-in-arms
by his gleemen to the accompaniment of some instru-
ment after the mead cup had gone round. The Roman
historian attests the prevalence among the German tribes
of ancient songs, which he expressly mentions as their
only kind of memory or record, — thus showing that all
their tales, whether mythologic or heroic, were for better
preservation cast into metrical form. Some of these,
enshrining the deeds of their heroes, were chanted on
going into battle, in order to arouse the warriors' courage.
And as far back as the light of history, or of literature,
penetrates, not only the Teutonic, but also the Celtic
nations loved to have their actions celebrated thus.
To a Welsh king his household bard was as necessary as
his domestic chaplain, or his court physician, and in the
ancient laws his duties, his precedence, his perquisites,
and even the songs he was expected to sing, are minutely
prescribed. The bards were organized into a regular
order, or college, with an official chief. They were not
merely singers or poets, but also tale-tellers ; and from the
Mabinogion we gather that listening to songs and tales
was one of the habitual, if not daily pastimes, of a court.1
It is needless to follow through the Middle Ages
the history of the troubadour, the minstrel and the
jongleur, who played so large part in the social life

1 Temple, "Legends of the Panjab,"vol. i. p. v. ; Thorburn, p. 172;
Leland, p. 12; Taylor, p. 306; "Beowulf," lay 16 ; Tacitus, "Ger-
mania," cc., 2, 3; "Ancient Laws and Institutions of Wales" (Public
Record Commission, 1841), pp. 15, 35, &c.

T6 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of those times. Many of them were retainers of noble-
men and kings ; but others roamed about from place
to place, singing their lays and reciting their stories (for
they dealt in prose as well as verse), very much in the
manner of the Indian bards just mentioned. Their stock-
in-trade must have been partly traditional and partly
of their own composition. In this respect they were
probably less hide-bound than their Indian brethren are.
For the latter, whether retainers of the native grandees,
as many of them are, or members of the humbler class
of wandering minstrels, are expected to repeat their lays
as they have received them. But, although in the main
these professional gentlemen adhere to the traditional
words which they know by heart, the temptation must
be very strong to foist at suitable pauses into their tales
impromptu passages — best described in stage language
as « gag » — which they think will be acceptable to their
audience. And whether or not this be actually the case
with the Indian bards, we are expressly told that it is so
with the Arab story-teller, and that it accounts for much
of the ribaldry and filth which have become embedded
in the immortal "Nights." A viol having only one
string accompanies the passages in verse with which the
stories are interlarded ; and a similar instrument seems
to be used for the like purpose among the orthodox
Guslars of Bosnia and Herzegovina.1 A description
given by Sir Richard Burton of a story-teller at the
bazaar at Tangier may stand, except as to the external
details, for that of an Arab reciter throughout Northern
Africa and the Moslem East. "The market people,"
he says, "form a ring about the reciter, a stalwart man,
affecting little raiment besides a broad waist-belt into
which his lower chiffons are tucked, and noticeable only
for his shock hair, wild eyes, broad grin, and generally

1 Burton, " Nights," vol. x. p. 163; "Revue des Trad. Pop."
vol. iv. p. 6. In Greece and Albania, however, the viol would seem
not to be used. Women are the chief reciters. Von Hahn, vol. i. p. ix.

THE ART Of STORY-TELLING. 17

disreputable aspect. He usually handles a short stick ;
and, when drummer and piper are absent, he carries a
tiny tomtom shaped like an hour-glass, upon which he
taps the periods. This Scealuidhe, as the Irish call him,
opens the drama with an .extempore prayer, proving that
he and the audience are good Moslems ; he speaks
slowly and with emphasis, varying the diction with
breaks of animation, abundant action and the most
comical grimace : he advances, retires, and wheels about,
illustrating every point with pantomime ; and his
features, voice and gestures are so expressive that even
Europeans who cannot understand a word of Arabic,
divine the meaning of his tale. The audience stands
breathless and motionless, surprising strangers by the
ingenuousness and freshness of feeling hidden under their
hard and savage exterior. The performance usually ends
with the embryo actor going round for alms, and
flourishing in the air every silver bit, the usual honor-
arium being a few f'liis, that marvellous money of
Barbary, big coppers worth one-twelfth of a penny."
Another writer, who has published modern Arab folk-
tales, obtained eleven out of twelve from his cook, a
man who could neither read nor write, but possessed
an excellent memory. His stories were derived from his
mother and aunts, and from old women who frequented
his early home. The remaining tale was dictated by
a sheikh with some, though small, pretensions to
education, and this tale, though at bottom a genuine
folk-tale, presented traces of literary manipulation.1

The literary touches here spoken of were probably not
impromptu. But it must be admitted that the tendency
to insert local colouring and " gag " is almost irresistible
amongst the Arabs. Dr. Steere notices it as a charac-
teristic of the story-tellers of the Swahili, a people of
mixed Arab and Negro descent at Zanzibar ; 2 and it is
perhaps inevitable in a professional reciter whose audience,
! Spitta Bey, p. viii. 2 Steere, pp. v., vii,

3

i8 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES,

like himself, is restless and vivacious in so high a degree
The only case in which any restraint would be certain to
be felt is where a narrative believed to be of religious
import is given. Under the influence of religious feeling
the most mobile of races become conservative ; and
traditions of a sacred character are the most likely of all
to be handed down unchanged from father to son.
Directly we get outside the charmed circle of religious
custom, precept, and story, the awe which has the most
powerful effect in preserving tradition intact ceases to
work ; and we are left to a somewhat less conservative
force of habit to retain the old form of words and the
time-honoured ceremonies. Still this force is powerful ;
the dislike of voluntary change forbids amendment even
of formularies which have long ceased to be understood,
and have often become ridiculous because their meaning
has been lost. It is by no means an uncommon thing for
the rustic story-teller to be unable to explain expressions,
and indeed whole episodes, in any other way than Uncle
Remus, when called upon to say who Miss Meadows was :
" She wuz in de tale, Miss Meadows en de gals wuz, en
de tale I give you like hi't wer' gun ter me." Dr. Steere,
speaking of a collection of Swahili tales by M. Jablonsky
which I think has never been published, tells us that
almost all of the tales had " sung parts," and of some of
these even they who sang them could scarcely explain
the meaning. Here we may observe the connection with
the folk-song ; and it is a strong evidence of adherence to
ancient tradition. Frequently in Dr. Steere's own ex-
perience the skeleton of the story seemed to be contained
in these snatches of song, which were connected together
by an account, apparently extemporized, of the intervening
history. In these latter portions, if the hypothesis of ex-
temporization were correct, the words of course would be
different, but the substance might remain untouched.
I suspect, however, that the extemporization was nothing
like so complete as the learned writer imagined, but

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 19

rather that the tale, as told with song and narrative
mingled, was in a state of gradual decay or transition
from verse to prose, and that the prose portions were, to
almost as great an extent as the verse, traditional.

Be this as it may, the tenacity with which the illiterate
story-teller generally adheres to the substance and to the
very words of his narrative is remarkable — and this in
spite of the freedom sometimes taken of dramatic illustra-
tion, and the license to introduce occasional local and
personal allusions and " gag." These are easily separable
from the genuine tale. What Dr. Kink says of
the Eskimo story-telling holds good, more or less, all
over the world. "The art," he states, "requires the
ancient tales to be related as nearly as possible in the
very words of the original version, with only a few
arbitrary reiterations, and otherwise only varied according
to the individual talents of the narrator, as to the mode
of recitation, gesture, &c. The only real discretionary
power allowed by the audience to the narrator is the
insertion of a few peculiar passages from other traditions ;
but even in that case no alteration of these original or
elementary materials used in the composition of tales is
admissible. Generally, even the smallest deviation from
the original version will be taken notice of and corrected,
if any intelligent person happens to be present. This
circumstance," he adds, "accounts for their existence in
an unaltered shape through ages ; for had there been
the slightest tendency to variation on the part of the
narrator, or relish for it on that of the audience, every
similarity of these tales, told in such widely-separated
countries, would certainly have been lost in the course of
centuries." Here the audience, wedded to the accustomed
formularies, is represented as controlling any inclination
to variation on the reciter's part. How far such an atti-
tude of mind may have been produced by previous
repetitions in the same Avords we need not inquire.
Certain it is that accuracy would be likely to generate

26 tttE SdlENCt OF FAIRY TALES.

the love of accuracy, and that again to react so as to
compel adherence to the form of words which the ear
had been led to expect. Readers of Grimm will re-
member the anxiety betrayed by a peasant woman of
Niederzwehr, near Cassel, that her very words and ex-
pressions should be taken down. They who have
studied the records collectors have made of the methods
they have adopted, and the assistance they have received
from narrators who have understood and sympathized
with their purpose, will not find anything exceptional in
this woman's conduct.1

Nor must we overlook the effect of dramatic and panto-
mimic action. At first sight action, like that of Messia
or the Arab reciter, might seem to make for freedom in
narration. But it may well be questioned if this be so to
any great extent. For in a short time certain attitudes,
looks, and gestures become inseparably wedded, not only
in the actor's mind, but also in the minds of the audience
who have grown accustomed to them, with the passages
and the very words to which they are appropriate. The
eye as well as the ear learns what to expect, with results
proportioned to the comparative values of those two
senses as avenues of knowledge. The history of the
stage, the observation of our own nurseries, will show
with how much suspicion any innovation on the mode of
interpreting an old favourite is viewed.

To sum up : it would appear that national differences
in the manner of story-telling are for the most part
superficial. Whether told by men to men in the bazaar
or the coffee-house of the East, or by old men or women
to children in the sacred recesses of the European home,
or by men to a mixed assembly during the endless nights
of the Arctic Circle, or in the huts of the tropical forest,
and notwithstanding the license often taken by a pro-
fessional reciter, the endeavour to render to the audience
just that which the speaker has himself received from his
1 Rink, p, 85 ; Grimm, " Marchen," p. vii.

THE ART OF STORY-TELLING. 21

predecessors is paramount. The faithful delivery of the
tradition is the principle underlying all variation of
manner ; and it is not confined to any one race or people.
It is not denied that changes do take place as the story
passes from one to another. This indeed is the inevitable
result of the play of the two counteracting forces just
described — the conservative tendency and the tendency to
variation. It is the condition of development ; it is what
makes a science of Folk-tales both necessary and possible.
Nor can it be denied that some changes are voluntary.
But the voluntary changes are rare ; and the involuntary
changes are only such as are natural and unavoidable if
the story is to continue its existence in the midst of the
ever-shifting social organism of humanity. The student
must, therefore, know something of the habits, the
natural and social surroundings, and the modes of the
thought of the people Avhose stories he examines. But
this known, it is not difficult to decipher the documents.
There is, however, one caution — namely, to be assured
that the documents are gathered direct from the lips of
the illiterate story-teller, and set down with accuracy and
good faith. Every turn of phrase, awkward or coarse
though it may seem to cultured ears, must be unre-
lentingly reported ; and every grotesquery, each strange
word, or incomprehensible or silly incident, must be
given without flinching. Any attempt to soften down
inconsistencies, vulgarities or stupidities, detracts from the
value of the text, and may hide or destroy something
from which the student may be able to make a discovery
of importance to science. Happily the collectors of the
present day are fully alive to this need. The pains they
take to ensure correctness are great, and their experiences
in so doing are often very interesting. Happily, too, the
student soon learns to distinguish the collections whose
sincerity is certain from those furbished up by literary
art. The latter may have purposes of amusement to
serve, but beyond that they are of comparatively little use,

CHAPTER II.

SAVAGE IDEAS.

Sagas and Marchen — Fairy Tales based upon ideas familiar to savages—-
The Doctrine of Spirits — The Doctrine of Transformation —
Totemism — Death — Witchcraft — The predominance of imagination
over reason in savages — Method of the inquiry.

FAIRY Tales, as defined in the previous chapter, fall under

two heads. Under the first we may place all those

stories which relate to definite supernatural beings, or

definite orders of supernatural beings, held really to

exist, and the scenes of which are usually laid in some

specified locality. Stories belonging to this class do not

necessarily, however, deal with the supernatural. Often

they are told of historical heroes, or persons believed to

have once lived. For instance, the legends of Lady

Godiva and Whittington and his Cat, which, however

improbable, contain nothing of the supernatural, must be

reckoned under this head equally with the story of the

Luck of Edenhall, or the Maori tale of the Rending

asunder of Heaven and Earth. In other words, this class

is by no means confined to Fairy Tales, but includes all

stories which are, or at all events have been up to recent

years, and in the form in which they come to us, looked

upon as narratives of actual occurrences. They are called

Sagas. The other class of tales consists of such as are

told simply for amusement, like Jack and the Beanstalk,

Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Puss in Boots. They

may embody incidents believed in other countries, or in

other stages of civilization, to be true in fact ; but in the

SAVAGE IDEAS. 23

form in which we have them this belief has long since
been dropped. In general, the reins are thrown upon the
neck of the imagination ; and, marvellous though the
story be, it cannot fail to find acceptance, because nobody
asserts that its events ever took place, and nobody
desires to bring down its flights to the level either of
logic or experience. Unlike the saga, it binds the con-
science neither of teller nor of listener ; its hero or
heroine has no historical name or fame, either national
or local ; and being untrammelled either by history or
probability, the one condition the tale is expected to fulfil
is to end happily. Stories of this class are technically
called Mdrchcn : we have no better English name for
them than Nursery Tales.

If we inquire which of these two species of tales is the
earlier in the history of culture, it seems that the priority
must be given to sagas. The matter, indeed, is not quite
free from doubt, because low down in the scale of civiliza-
tion, as among the Ainos of Japan, stories are told which
appear to be no more than marchen ; and because, on the
other hand, it is at all times easier, even for experienced
collectors, to obtain sagas than marchen. But among
the lower races, a vastly preponderating number of tales
recorded by Europeans who have lived with them on
the terms of the greatest intimacy is told to account for
the phenomena of nature, or their own history and
organization. From many savage peoples we have no
other stories at all ; and it is not uncommon to find nar-
ratives at bottom identical 'with some of these told as
marchen among nations that have reached a higher plane.
In these cases, at all events, it looks as if the tales, or
tales from which they had been derived, had been origin-
ally believed as true, and, having ceased to be thus
received, had continued to be repeated, in a shape more
or less altered, for mere amusement. If we may venture
to affirm this and to generalize from such cases, this is the
way in which marchen have arisen.

24 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

But sagas are not only perhaps the most ancient of
tales, they are certainly the most persistent. By their
attachment to places and to persons, a religious sanction
is frequently given to them, a local and national pride
is commonly felt in preserving them. Thus they are
remembered when nursery tales are forgotten ; they are
more easily communicated to strangers ; they find their
way into literature and so are rendered imperishable.

Fairy Tales of both these classes are compounded of
incidents which are the common property of many
nations, and not a few whereof are known all over the
habitable globe. In some instances the whole plot, a
more or less intricate one, is found among races the most
diverse in civilization and character. Where the plot is
intricate, or contains elements of a kind unlikely to have
originated independently, we may be justified in suspect-
ing diffusion from one centre. Then it is that the history
and circumstances of a nation become important factors
in the inquiry ; and upon the purity of blood and the
isolation from neighbouring races may depend our decision
as to the original or derivative character of such a tradi-
tion. Sometimes the passage of a story from one country
to another can be proved by literary evidence. This is
markedly the case with Apologues and Facetious Tales, two
classes of traditions which do not come within the purview
of the present work. But the story has then passed
beyond the traditional stage, or else such proof could riot
be given. In tracing the history of a folk-tale which has
entered into literature, the problem is to ascertain how
far the literary variations we meet with may have been
influenced by pre-existing traditional tales formed upon
similar lines. In general, however, it may be safely said
of Fairy Tales (with which we are more immediately con-
cerned) that the argument in favour of their propagation
from a single centre lacks support. The incidents of
which they are composed are based upon ideas not
peculiar to any one people, ideas familiar to savages

SAVAGE IDEAS. 2$

everywhere, and only slowly modified and transformed as
savagery gives way to barbarism, and barbarism to modern
civilization and scientific knowledge of the material
phenomena of the universe. The ideas referred to are
expressed by races in the lower culture both in belief and
in custom. And many of the tales which now arnuse
our children appear to have grown out of myths believed
in the most matter-of-fact way by our remote forefathers ;
while others enshrine relics of long-forgotten customs and
modes of tribal organization.

There is one habit of thought familiar to savage tribes
that to us, trained through long centuries of progressive
knowledge, seems in the highest degree absurd and even
incomprehensible. As a matter of every-day practice we
cannot, if we would, go back to that infantine state of
mind which regards not only our fellow men and women,
but all objects animate and inanimate around us, as
instinct with a consciousness, a personality akin to our
own. This, however, is the savage philosophy of things.
To a large proportion of human beings at the present day
beasts and birds, trees and plants, the sea, the mountains,
the wind, the sun, the moon, the clouds and the stars, day
and night, the heaven and the earth, are alive and pos-
sessed of the passions and the cunning and the will they
feel within themselves. The only difference is that these
things are vastly cleverer and more powerful than men.
Hence they are to be dreaded, to be appeased — if possible,
to be outwitted — even, sometimes, to be punished. We
may observe this childish habit of thought in our nurseries
today when one of our little ones accidentally runs
against the table, and forthwith turns round to beat the
senseless wood as if it had voluntarily and maliciously
caused his pain ; or when another, looking wistfully out
of window, adjures the rain in the old rhyme :

" Rain, rain, go away !
Come again another day ! "

26 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Pouts, too, and orators in their loftiest moods revert to
language and modes of expression which have no mean-
ing apart from this belief in the conscious animation of
every object in the world. They may move us for the
moment by their utterances ; but we never take their
raptures literally. To the savage, however, it is no
figure of speech to call upon the sun to behold some great
deed, or to declare that the moon hides her face ; to assert
that the ocean smiles, or that the river swells with rage,
and overwhelms a wayfarer who is crossing it, or an un-
suspecting village on its banks. These phrases for him
fit the facts of nature as closely as those which record
that the man eats or the boy runs. Nay, what would
seem incredible to him would be to deny that the sun can
see or the moon hide her face, the ocean smile or the
river become enraged. Conscious personality and human
emotions are visible to him everywhere and in all things.

It matters not to the savage that human form and
speech are absent. These are not necessary, or, if they
are, they can be assumed either at will or under certain
conditions. For one of the consequences, or at least one of
the accompaniments, of this stage of thought is the belief
in change of form without loss of individual identity.
The bear whom the savage meets in the woods is too
cunning to appear and do battle with him as a man ; but
he could if he chose. The stars were once men and
women. Sun and moon, the wind and the waters,
perform all the functions of living beings : they speak,
they eat, they marry and have children. Rocks and
trees are not always as immovable as they appear : some-
times they are to be seen as beasts or men, whose shapes
they still, it may be, dimly retain.

It follows that peoples in this stage of thought cannot
have, in theory at all events, the repugnance to a sexual
union between man and the lower animals with which
religious training and the growth of civilization have
impressed all the higher races. Such peoples admit the

SAVAGE IDEAS. 27

possibility of a marriage wherein one party may be human
and the other an animal of a different species, or even a
tree or plant. If they do not regard it as an event which
can take place in their own time and neighbourhood, it
does not seem entirely incredible as an event of the past ;
and sometimes customs are preserved on into a higher
degree of culture — such as that of wedding, for special
purposes, a man to a tree — unmistakably bespeaking
former, if not present, beliefs. Moreover, tribes in the
stage of thought here described, hold themselves to be
actually descended from material objects often the most
diverse from human form. These are not only animals
(beasts, birds, fishes, reptiles, and even insects) or vege-
tables, but occasionally the sun, the sea, the earth, and
other things unendowed with life. Such mythic ancestors
are worshipped as divine. This superstition is called
Tofetm'sm, and the mythic ancestor is known as the
Totem. As a people passes gradually into a higher stage
of culture, greater stress is constantly laid on the human
qualities of the Totem, until it becomes at length an
anthropomorphic god. To such deity the object previously
reverenced as a Totem is attached, and a new and
modified legend grows up to account for the connection.

The belief in metamorphosis involves opinions on the
subject of death which are worth a moment's pause.
Death is a problem to all men, to the savage as to the
most civilized. Least of any can the savage look upon
it as extinction. He emphatically believes that he has
something within him that survives the dissolution of
his outward frame. This is his spirit, the seat of his
consciousness, his real self. As he himself has a spirit,
so every object in the world has a spirit. He peoples the
universe, as he knows it, with spirits akin to his own.
It is to their spirits that all the varied objects around
him, all the phenomena observable by day or by night,
owe the consciousness, the personality, I have already
tried to describe. These spirits are separable from the

28 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

material form with which they are clad. When the
savage sleeps, his spirit goes forth upon various adven-
tures. These adventures he remembers as dreams ; but
they are as veritable as his waking deeds ; and he awakes
when his spirit returns to him. In his dreams he sees
his friends, his foes ; he kills imaginary bears and
venison. He knows therefore that other men's spirits
travel while their bodies sleep and undergo adventures
like his own, and in company often with his spirit. He
knows that the spirits of wTild animals range abroad and
encounter his spirit. What is death but the spirit going
forth to return no more ? Rocks and rivers perhaps
cannot die, or at least their life immeasurably exceeds
that of men. But the trees of the forest may, for he
can cut them down and burn them. Yet, inasmuch as it
is the nature of a body to have an indwelling spirit,
death — the permanent severing of body and spirit —
cannot occur naturally : it must be due to the machina-
tion of some enemy, by violence, by poison, or by
sorcery.

The spirit that has gone forth for ever is not, by
quitting its bodily tenement, deprived of power offensive
and defensive. It is frequently impelled by hostile
motives to injure those yet in the flesh ; and it must,
therefore, be appeased, or deceived, or driven away.
This is the end and aim of funeral rites : this is the
meaning of many periodical ceremonies in which the
whole tribe takes part. For the same reason, Avhen the
hunter slays a powerful animal, he apologizes and lays
the blame on his arrows or his spear, or on some one else.
For the same reason the woodman, when he cuts down a
tree, asks permission to do so and offers sacrifices, and he
provides a green sprig to stick into the stump as soon as
the tree falls, that it may be a new home for the spirit
thus dislodged. For since the spirit is neither slain, nor
deprived of power, by destruction of the body, or by
severance from the body, it may find another to dwell in.

SAVAGE IDEAS. 29

Spirits of dead men, like other spirits, may assume fresh
bodies, new forms, and forms not necessarily human. A
favourite form is that of a snake : it was as a snake that
the spirit of Anchises appeared and accepted the offer-
ings made by his pious son. In their new forms the
spirits of the dead are sometimes, as in this case, kindly,
at other times malicious, but always to be treated with
respect, always to be conciliated ; for their power is
great. They can in their turn cause disease, misfortune,
death.

Another characteristic of the mental condition I am
describing must not be omitted. Connection of thought,
even though purely fortuitous, is taken to indicate actual
connection of the things represented in thought. This
connection is, of course, often founded on association of
time or place, and once formed it is not easily broken-
For example, any object once belonging to a man recalls
the thought of him. The connection between him and
that object is therefore looked upon as still existing, and
he may be affected by the conduct shown towards it.
This applies with special force to such objects as articles of
clothing, and still more to footprints and to spittle, hair,
nail-parings and excrement. Injury to these with malicious
intent will hurt him from whom they are derived. In
the same way a personal name is looked upon as in-
separable from its owner ; and savages are frequently
careful to guard the knowledge of their true names from
others, being content to be addressed and spoken of by
a nickname, or a substituted epithet. The reason of this
is that the knowledge of another's name confers power
over that other : it is as though he, or at least an
essential part of him, were in the possession of the
person who had obtained the knowledge of his name.
It is perhaps not an unfair deduction from the same
premises that endows an image with the properties of
its prototype — nay, identifies it with its prototype. This
leads on the one hand to idol-worship, and on the other

30 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

hand to the rites of witchcraft wherein the wizard is said
to make a figure of a man, call it by his name, and then
transfix it with nails or thorns, or burn it, with the
object of causing pain and ultimately death to the person
represented. Nor is a very different process of thought
discernible in the belief that by eating human or other
flesh the spirit (or at any rate some of the spiritual
qualities) formerly animating it can be transferred to the
eater. So a brave enemy is devoured in the hope of
acquiring his bravery ; and a pregnant woman is denied
the flesh of hares and other animals whose qualities it is
undesirable her children should have.

To minds guiltless of inductive reasoning an accidental
coincidence is a sure proof of cause and effect. Travel-
lers' tales are full of examples of misfortunes quite
beyond foresight or control, but attributed by the savages
among whom the narrators have sojourned to some
perfectly innocent act on their part, or merely to their
presence, or to some strange article of their equipment.
Occasionally the anger of the gods is aroused by these
things ; and missionaries, in particular, have suffered
much on this account. But sometimes a more direct
causation is imagined, though it is probably not always
easy to distinguish the two cases. Omens also are
founded upon accidental coincidences. The most lively
imagination may fail to trace cause and effect between
the meeting of a magpie at setting out and a fruitless
errand following, or between a certain condition of the
entrails of an animal sacrificed and a victory or defeat
thereafter. But the imagination is not to be beaten thus.
If the magpie did not cause failure, at all events it
foretold it ; and the look of the entrails was an omen of
the gain or loss of the battle.

Again, a merely fanciful resemblance is a sufficient
association to establish actual connection. Why do the
Bushmen kindle great fires in time of drought, if not
because of the similarity in appearance between smoke

SAVAGE IDEAS. 31

and rain-clouds ? Such resemblances, to give a familiar
instance, have fastened on certain rocks and stones many
legends of transformation in conformity with the belief
already discussed ; and they account for a vast variety of
symbolism in the rites and ceremonies of nations all over
the world.

The topic is well nigh endless ; but enough has been
said to enable the reader to see how widely pervasive in
human affairs is the belief in real connection founded on
nothing more substantial than association of thought,
however occasioned. Nothing, indeed, is too absurd for
this belief. It is one of the most fruitful causes of
superstition ; and it only disappears very gradually from
the higher civilization as the reasoning powers become
more and more highly trained. In magic, or witchcraft,
we find it developed into a system, with professional
ministers and well-established rules. By these rules its
ministers declare themselves able to perform all the
wonders of transformation referred to above, to command
spirits, to bring distant persons and things into their
immediate presence, to inflict injury and death upon
whom they please, to bestow wealth and happiness, and
to foretell the future. The terror they have thus
inspired, and the horrors wrought under the influence of
that terror, form one of the saddest chapters of history.1

I do not of course pretend that the foregoing is a
complete account of the mental processes of savage
peoples. Still less have I attempted to trace the history
of the various characteristics mentioned, or to show the
order of their evolution. To attempt either of these

1 I have not thought it necessary to illustrate at length the character-
istics of savage thought enumerated above. They are exhaustively dis-
cussed by Dr. Tylor in "Primitive Culture," Sir John Lubbock in
"The Origin of Civilization," Mr. Andrew Lang in "Myth Ritual and
Religion," and some of them by Mr. J. G. Frazer in " Totemism," and
more recently in " The Golden Bough," published since these pages
were written.

32 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

things would be beyond the scope of the present work.
I have simply enumerated a few of the elements in the
psychology of men in a low state of culture which it
is needful to bear in mind in order to understand the
stories we are about to examine. In those stories we
shall find many impossibilities, many absurdities and
many traces of customs repulsive to our modes of
thought and foreign to our manners. The explanation
is to be obtained, not by speculations based on far-
fetched metaphors supposed to have existed in the speech
of early races, nor in philological puzzles, but by soberly
inquiring into the facts of barbarian and savage life and
into the psychological phenomena of which the facts
are the outcome. The evidence of these facts and phe-
nomena is to be found scattered up and down the pages
of writers of every age, creed and country. On hardly
any subject have men of such different degrees of learn-
ing, such various and opposite prejudices, left us their
testimony — testimony from the nature of the subject
more than ordinarily liable to be affected by prejudice,
and by the limitations of each witness's powers of observa-
tion and opportunities of ascertaining the truth. But
after all deductions for prejudice, mistake, inaccuracy and
every other shortcoming, there is left a strong, an in-
vincible consensus of testimony, honest, independent and
full of undesigned corroborations, to the development of
the mind of all races in the lower culture along the lines
here indicated. Nay, more ; the numerous remains of
archaic institutions, as well as of beliefs among the most
advanced nations, prove that they too have passed through
the very same stages in which we find the most backward
still lingering — stages which the less enlightened classes
even of our own countrymen at the present day are loth
to quit. And the further we penetrate in these investi-
gations, the more frequent and striking are the coinci-
dences between the mental phenomena already described
which are still manifested by savage peoples, and those

SAVAGE IDEAS. 33

of which the evidence has not yet disappeared from our
own midst.

Nor need we be surprised at this, for the root whence
all these phenomena spring is the predominance of
imagination over reason in the uncivilized. Man, while
his experience is limited to a small tract of earth, and
his life is divided between a struggle with nature and
his fellow-man for the permission and the means to live,
on the one hand, and seasons of idleness, empty perforce
of every opportunity and every desire for improving his
condition, on the other, cannot acquire the materials of
a real knowledge of his physical environment. His only
data for interpreting the world and the objects it contains,
so far as he is acquainted with them, are his own con-
sciousness and his own emotions. Upon these his drafts
are unbounded ; and if he have any curiosity about the
origin and government of things, his hypotheses take the
shape of tales in which the actors, whatever form they
bear, are essentially himself in motive and deed, but
magnified and distorted to meet his wishes or his fears,
or the conditions of the problem as presented to his
limited vision. The thought which is the measure of
his universe is as yet hardly disciplined by anything
beyond his passions.

Nor does the predominance of the imagination issue
only in these tales and in songs — the two modes of ex-
pression we most readily attribute to the imagination.
In practical life it issues in superstitious observances, and
in social and political institutions. Social institutions
are sometimes of great complexity, even in the depth of
savagery. Together with political institutions they supply
the model on which are framed man's ideas of the rela-
tionship to one another and to himself of the supernatural
beings whom he creates ; and in turn they reflect and
perpetuate those ideas in ceremonial and other observ-
ances. The student of Fairy Tales, therefore, cannot
afford to neglect the study of institutions ; for it often

4

34 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

throws a light altogether unexpected on the origin and
meaning of a story. Tradition must, indeed, be studied
as a whole. As with other sciences, its division into parts
is natural and necessary ; but it should never be forgotten
that none of its parts can be rightly understood with-
out reference to the others. By Tradition I mean the
entire circle of thought and practice, custom as well as
belief, ceremonies, tales, music, songs, dances and other
amusements, the philosophy and the superstitions and
the institutions, delivered by word of mouth and by
example from generation to generation through unre-
membered ages : in a word, the sum total of the psycho-
logical phenomena of uncivilized man. Every people has
its own body of Tradition, its own Folk-lore, which com-
prises a slowly diminishing part, or the whole, of its
mental furniture, according as the art of writing is, or
is not, known. The invention of writing, by enabling
records to be made and thoughts and facts to be com-
municated with certainty from one to another, first
renders possible the accumulation of true knowledge and
ensures a constantly accelerating advance in civilization.
But in every civilized nation there are backward classes
to whom reading and writing are either quite unknown,
or at least unfamiliar ; and there are certain matters in
the lives even of the lettered classes which remain more
or less under the dominion of Tradition. Culture, in
the sense of a mode of life guided by reason and utilizing
the discoveries and inventions that are the gift of science,
finds its way but slowly among a people, and filters only
sluggishly through its habits, its institutions and its creeds.
Surely, however, though gradually it advances, like a
rising tide which creeps along the beach, here under-
mining a heap of sand, there surrounding, isolating, and
at last submerging a rock, here swallowing up a pool
brilliant with living creatures and many-coloured weed,
there mingling with and overwhelming a rivulet that
leaps down to its embrace, until all the shore is covered

SAVAGE IDEAS. 35

with its waters. Meanwhile, he who would understand
its course must know the conformation of the coast, — the
windings, the crags (their composition as well as their
shape), the hollows, the sands, the streams ; for without
these its currents and its force are alike inexplicable.
The analogy must not be pressed too far ; but it will
help us to understand why we find a fragment of a
custom in one place, a portion of a tale jumbled up with
portions of dissimilar tales in another place, a segment
of a superstition, and again a worn and broken relic of a
once vigorous institution. They are the rocks and the
sands which the flood of civilization is first isolating, then
undermining, and at last overwhelming, and hiding from
our view. They are (to change the figure) survivals of an
earlier state of existence, unintelligible if regarded singly,
made to render up their secret only by comparison with
other survivals, and with examples of a like state of ex-
istence elsewhere. Taken collectively, they enable us to
trace the evolution of civilization from a period before
history begins, and through more recent times by channels
whereof history gives no account.

These are the premises whence we set out, and the
principles which will guide us, in the study on which we
are about to enter. The name of Fairy Tales is legion ;
but they are made up of incidents whose number is com-
paratively limited. And though it would be impossible
to deal adequately with more than a small fraction of
them in a work like the present, still a selection may be
so treated as to convey a reasonably just notion of the
application of the principles laid down and of the results
to be obtained. In making such a selection several in-
teresting groups of stories, unconnected as between
themselves, might be chosen for consideration. The
disadvantage of this course would be the fragmentary
nature of the discussions, and consequently of the con-
clusions arrived at. It is not wholly possible to avoid
this disadvantage in any mode of treatment ; but it is

36 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

possible to lessen it. I propose, therefore, to deal with
a few of the most interesting sagas relative to the Fairy
Mythology strictly so called. We shall thus confine our
view to a well-defined area, in the hope that we may
obtain such an idea of it as in its main lines at all events
may be taken to be fairly true to the facts, and that we
may learn who really were these mysterious beings who
played so large a part in our fathers' superstitions. As
yet, however, we must not be disappointed if we find that
the state of scientific inquiry will not admit of many
conclusions, and such as we may reach can at present
be stated only tentatively and with caution. Science,
like Mr. Fox in the nursery tale, writes up over all the
doors of her palace :

" Be bold, be bold, but not too bold."

Many a victim has found to his cost what it meant to
disregard this warning.

CHAPTER III.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES.

Stories of miclwives who have been summoned to the birth of fairies — •
Human visitors to Fairyland must not eat there — The reason —
Fairies' gratitude — The conditions of fairy gifts.

A TALE, the scene of which is laid near Beddgelert, runs,
as translated by Professor Rhys, in this way : — " Once on
a time, when a midwife from Nanhwynan had newly got
to the Hafodydd Brithion to pursue her calling, a gentle-
man came to the door on a fine grey steed and bade her
come with him at once. Such was the authority with
which he spoke, that the poor midwife durst not refuse
to go, however much it was her duty to stay where she
was. So she mounted behind him, and off they went,
like the flight of a swallow, through Cwmllan, over the
Bwlch, down Nant yr Aran, and over the Gadairto Cwm
Hafod Ruffydd before the poor woman had time even to
say Oh ! When they got there, she saw before her
a magnificent mansion, splendidly lit up with such
lamps as she had never before seen. They entered the
court, and a crowd of servants in expensive liveries came
to meet them, and she was at once led through the great
hall into a bed-chamber, the like of which she had never
seen. There the mistress of the house, to whom she
had been fetched, was awaiting her. She got through
her duties successfully, and stayed there until the lady
had completely recovered, nor had she spent any part of
her life so merrily ; there was naught but festivity day
and night : dancing, singing, and endless rejoicing

38 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

reigned there. But merry as it was, she found she must
go, and the nobleman gave her a large purse, with the
order not to open it until she had got into her own
house ; then he bade one of his servants escort her the
same way she had come. When she reached home she
opened the purse, and, to her great joy, it was full of
money ; and she lived happily on those earnings to the
end of her life." 1

It is a long leap from Carnarvonshire to Lapland,
where this story is told with no great variation. A
clergyman's wife in Swedish Lappmark, the cleverest
midwife in all Sweden, Avas summoned one fine summer's
evening to attend a mysterious being of Troll race and
great might, called Vitra. At this unusual call she took
counsel with her husband, who, however, deemed it best
for her to go. Her guide led her into a splendid building,
the rooms whereof were as clean and elegant as those of
very illustrious folk ; and in a beautiful bed lay a still
more beautiful woman, for whom her services were re-
quired, and who was no other than Vitra herself. Under
the midwife's care Vitra speedily gave birth to a fair girl,
and in a few minutes had entirely recovered, and fetched
all sorts of refreshments, which she laid before her bene-
factress. The latter refused to eat, in spite of Vitra's
reassuring persuasion, and further refused the money
which the Troll-wife pressed upon her. Vitra then sent
her home, bidding her look on the table when next she
entered her cowherd's hut and see what she would find
there. She thought no more of the matter until the
following spring, when on entering the hut she found on
the table half a dozen large spoons of pure silver with her
name engraved thereon in neat letters. These spoons
long remained an heirloom in the clergyman's family to
testify the truth of the story. A Swedish book, published
in 1775, contains a tale, narrated in the form of a legal

'"Y Cymmrodor," vol. v. p. 70, translated from "Y Brython,"
vol. iv. p. 251.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 39

declaration solemnly subscribed on the I2th April 1671
by the fortunate midwife's husband, whose name was
Peter Rahm, and who also seems to have been a clergy-
man. On the authority of this declaration we are called
on to believe that the event recorded actually happened
in the year 1660. Peter Rahm alleges that he and his
Avife were at their farm one evening late when there
came a little man, swart of face and clad in grey, who
begged the declarant's wife to come and help his wife
then in labour. The declarant, seeing that they had to
do with a Troll, prayed over his wife, blessed her, and
bade her in God's name go with the stranger. She
seemed to be borne along by the wind. After her task
was accomplished she, like the clergyman's wife just
mentioned, refused the food offered her, and was borne
home in the same manner as [she had come. The next
day she found on a shelf in the sitting-room a heap of
old silver pieces and clippings, which it is to be supposed
the Troll had brought her.1

Apart from the need of human aid, common to all the
legends with which we are dealing, the two points
emphasized by these Swedish tales are the midwife's
refusal of food and the gratitude of the Troll. In a
Swabian story the Earthman, as he is called, apologizes
for omitting to offer food. In this case the midwife was
afraid to go alone with her summoner, and begged that
her husband might accompany her. This was permitted ;
and the Earthman showed them the way through the
forest with his lantern, for if was of course night. They
came first to a moss door, then to a wooden door, and
lastly to a door of shining metal, whence a staircase went
down into the earth, and led them into a large and
splendid chamber where the Earthwife lay. When the
object of their visit was accomplished the Earthman

1 Poestion, p. Ill ; Grimm, "Tent. Myth." p. 457, note, quoting at
length the declaration from Hulpher, " Samlingen om Jamtland."
A translation will be found in Keightley, p. 122.

40 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

thanked the woman much, and said : " You do not relish
our meat" and drink, wherefore I will bestow something
else upon thee." With these words he gave her a whole
apronful of black coals, and taking his lantern again he
lighted the midwife and her husband home. On the
way home she slily threw away one coal after another.
The Earthman said nothing until he was about to take
his leave, when he observed merely : " The less you
scattered the more you might have." After he had
gone the woman's husband remonstrated with her,
bidding her keep the coals, for the Earthman appeared
in earnest with his gift. When they reached home,
however, she shook out her apron on the hearth, and
behold ! instead of coals, glittering true gold pieces.
The woman now sought eagerly enough after the coals
she had thrown away, but she found them not.1

Confining our attention for the moment to the refusal
of food, it would seem that the Earthman's apology in
the foregoing narrative is, as too many human apologies
are, a mere excuse. The real reason for the midwife's
abstention was not that fairy food was distasteful, but that
she durst not touch it, under penalty of never again
returning to the light of day. A Danish tradition tells
of a woman who was taken by an elf on Christmas
Eve down into the earth to attend his wife. As soon as
the elf wife was delivered her husband took the child
away ; for if he could find two newly married persons in
the bridal bed, before they had repeated their Paternoster,
he could, by laying the child between them, procure for
it all the good fortune intended for the newly wedded
pair. During his absence the elfwife took the oppor-
tunity of instructing her helper as to her conduct when
he returned ; and the first and chief point of her advice
Avas to eat nothing that was offered her. The elfwife
was herself a Christian woman who had been inveigled
down into the dwellings of the elves ; she had eaten, and
1 Meier, p. 59.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 4!

therefore had never escaped again. On the elf's return,
accordingly, the midwife refused food, and he said :
" They did not strike thee on the mouth who taught
thee that." Late rabbinical writings contain a similar
legend of a Mohel, a man whose office it was to circum-
cise, who was summoned one winter's night by a stranger
to perform the ceremony upon a child who would be
eight days old the following day. The stranger led him
to a lofty mountain, into the bowels of which they passed,
and after descending many flights of steps found them-
selves in a great city. Here the Mohel was taken to
a palace, in one of whose apartments was the child's
mother lying. When she saw the Mohel she began to
weep, and told him that he was in the land of the
Mazikin, but that she was a human being, a Jewess, who
had been carried away when little from home and brought
thither. And she counselled him to take good heed to
refuse everything whether of meat or drink that might
be offered him : " For if thou taste anything of theirs
thou wilt become like one of them, and wilt remain here
for ever.'' r

We touch here upon a very ancient and widespread
superstition, which we may pause to illustrate from
different parts of the world. A Manx tale, which can
be traced back to Waldron, narrates the night adventure
of a farmer who lost his way in returning home from
Peel, and was led by the sound of music into a large hall
where were a great number of little people feasting.
Among them were some faces he seemed to know ; but
he took no notice of them until the little folk offered him
drink, when one of them, whose .features seemed not un-
known to him, plucked him by the coat and forbade him,
whatever he did, to taste anything he saw before him ;
"for if you do," he added, "you will be as I am, and
return no more to your family." 2

'Thorpe, vol. ii. p. I2§, from Thiele, "Danmark's Folkesagn " j
Keightley, p. 506. ? Waldron, p. 28,

42 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

It is necessary for the hero of a Picard story to go and
seek the devil in his own abode. The devil of popular
imagination, though a terrific ogre, is not the entirely
Evil One of theologians ; and one of his good points in
the story referred to is that he has three fair daughters,
the fairest of whom is compelled by the hero to help him
in overcoming her father. She accordingly instructs him
to eat no meat and to drink no wine at the devil's house,
otherwise he will be poisoned. This may remind us of
Kan Piidai, who in the Altaic ballad descends with his
steed to the middle of the earth and encounters various
monsters. There the grass and the water of the moun-
tain forest through which he rode were poison. In both
cases, what is probably meant is, that to eat or drink is to
return no more from these mysterious abodes ; and it
may be to the intent to obviate any such consequence
that Saint Peter, in sending a certain king's son down
through a black and stinking hole a hundred toises deep
underground, in a Gascon tale, to fetch Saint Peter's own
sword, provides him Avith just enough bread in his wallet
every morning to prevent his bursting with hunger. An
extension of this thought sometimes even prohibits the
hero from accepting a seat or a bed offered by way of
hospitality on the part of the devil, or the sorceress, to
whose dwelling his business may take him, or even to
look at the fair temptress who may seek to entice him to
cat.1

The meaning of the superstition is not easy to trace,
but it should be remembered that in the lower stages of
human civilization no distinction is drawn between
supernatural or spiritual beings who have never been
1 enclosed in human bodies, and the spirits of the dead.
Savage philosophy mingles them together in one phan-
tasmagoria of grotesquery and horror. The line which

1 " Melusine," vol. i. p. 446 ; Radloff, vol. i. p. 78 ; Blade, vol. i. p.
161 ; Cosquin, vol. ii. p. 10 ; Cavallius, p. 281; "Revue des Trad.
Pop." vol. iv. p. 222.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 43

separates fairies and ogres from the souls of men has
gradually grown up through ages of Christian teaching ;
and, broad as it may seem to us, it is occasionally hardly
visible in these stories. Every now and then it is
ignored, as in the case of the old friends found among
the " little people " by the Manx farmer. Less startling
than these, but quite as much in point, are the women,
like some already mentioned, who are carried off into
Fairyland, where they become wives and mothers. They
can never come back to their old life, though they retain
enough of the "mortal mixture" to require the adven-
turous human midwife to relieve their pains. Accord-
ingly, we need not be surprised if the same incidents of
story or fibres of superstition attach at one time to ghosts
and at another to the non-human creatures of imagina-
tion, or if Hades and Fairyland are often confounded.
Both are equally the realm of the supernatural. We
may therefore inquire whether eating is forbidden to the
chance sojourner in the place of the dead equally as to
the sojourner in Fairyland, if he wish to return to the
upper air. And we shall find that it is.

Proserpine ate seven grains of a pomegranate which
grew in the Elysian Fields, and so was compelled to
remain in the Shades, the wife of "the grisly king."
Thus, too, when Morgan the Fay takes measures to get
Ogier the Dane into her power she causes him to be
shipwrecked on a loadstone rock near to Avalon. Es-
caping from the sea, he comes to an orchard, and there
eats an apple which, it is not too much to say, seals his
fate. Again, when Thomas of Erceldoune is being led
down by the Fairy Queen into her realm, he desires to
eat of the fruit of certain trees.

" He presed to pul the frute with his honcle,
As man for fode was nyhonde feynte;
She seid, Thomas, lat them stande,
Or ellis the fiend will the ateynte.

44 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

If thou pulle the sothe to sey,
Thi soule goeth to the fyre of hell
Hit cummes never out til domusday,
But ther ever in payne to dwelle."

An old story preserved for us by Saxo Grammaticus describes
the visit of some Danish heroes to Guthmund, a giant
who rules a delightful land beyond a certain river crossed
by a golden bridge. Thorkill, their conductor, a Scandi-
navian Ulysses for cunning, warns his companions of the
various temptations that will be set before them. They
must forbear the food of the country, and be satisfied with
that which they had brought with them ; moreover, they
must keep apart from the natives, taking care not so much
as to touch them. In spite, however, of Thorkill's warn-
ings to them, and his excuses in their behalf to the king,
some of the heroes fell and were left behind when their
friends were at last allowed to depart.1 So far we see
that the prohibition and the danger we found extant in
the Fairyland of modern folk-tales apply also to the
classic Hades ; and we have traced them back a long way
into the Middle Ages in French, British, and Danish
traditions relating to fairies and other supernatural
existences, with a special threat of Hell in the case of
Thomas of Erceldoune.

On the other side of the globe the Banks' islanders
believe, like the Greeks, in an underground kingdom of
the dead, which they call Panoi. Only a few years ago
a woman was living who professed to have been down
there. Her object had been to visit her brother, who
had recently died. To do this she perfumed herself with
water in Avhich a dead rat had been steeped, so as to give
herself a death-like smell. She then pulled up a bird's
nest and descended through the hole thus made. Her
brother, whom of course she found, cautioned her to eat
nothing, and by taking his advice she was able to return.

1 Child, vol. i. p. 319; "Thomas of Erceldoune," p. II (Cambridge
Text) ; Saxo, " Gesta Dan." 1, viii.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 45

A similar tale is told of a New Zealand woman of rank,
who was lucky enough to come back from the abode of
departed spirits by the assistance of her father and his
repeated commands to avoid tasting the disgusting food
of the dead. Wainamoinen, the epic hero of the Finns,
determined to penetrate to Manala, the region of the
dead. We need not follow in detail his voyage ; it will
suffice to say that on his arrival, after a long parley with
the maiden daughter of Tuoni, the king of the island,
beer was brought to him in a two-eared tankard.

" Wainamoinen, old and trusty,
Gaz'd awhile upon the tankard ;
Lo ! within it frogs were spawning,
Worms about its sides were laying.
Words in this wise then he utter'd :
' Not to drink have I come hither
From the tankard of Manala,
Not to empty Tuoni's beaker ;
They who drink of beer are drowned,
Those who drain the can are ruin'd.'" *

The hero's concluding words might form a motto for
our teetotallers ; and in any case his abstinence enabled
him to succeed in his errand and return. A point is
made in the poem of the loathsome character of the
beverage offered him, which thus agrees with the poison
referred to in some of the narratives I have previously
cited. The natives of the Southern Seas universally
represent the sustenance of spirits as filthy and abomin-
able. A most remarkable coincidence with the descrip-
tion of Tuoni's beer occurs in a curious story told on one
of the Hervey Islands, concerning a Mangaian Dante.
Being apparently near death, this man directed that, as
soon as the breath was out of his body, a cocoa-nut should
be cracked, and its kernel disengaged from the shell and
placed upon his stomach under the grave-clothes.

1 Journal of Anthrop. Inst. vol. x. p. 282; Shortland, p. 150;
" Kalewala," rune xvi. 1. 293.

46 THE SCIENCE OF fAlRY TALES.

Having descended to the Shades, he beheld Miru, the
horrible hag who rules them, and whose deformities need
not now be detailed. She commanded him to draw
near. "The trembling human spirit obeyed, and sat
down before Miru. According to her unvarying practice
she set for her intended victim a bowl of food, and bade
him eat it quite up. Miru, with evident anxiety, waited
to see him swallow it. As Tekanae took up the bowl, to
his horror he found it to consist of living centipedes. The
quick-witted mortal now recollected the cocoa-nut kernel
at the pit of his stomach, and hidden from Miru's view
by his clothes. With one hand he held the bowl to his
lips, as if about to swallow its contents ; with the other
he secretly held the cocoa-nut kernel, and ate it — the
bowl concealing the nut from Miru. It was evident to
the goddess that Tekanae was actually swallowing some-
thing : what else could it be but the contents of the fatal
bowl ? Tekanae craftily contrived whilst eating the
nourishing cocoa-nut to allow the live centipedes to fall
on the ground one or two at a time. As the intended
victim was all the time sitting on the ground it was no
difficult achievement in this way to empty the bowl com-
pletely by the time he had finished the cocoa-nut. Miru
waited in vain to see her intended victim writhing in
agony and raging with thirst. Her practice on such
occasions was to direct the tortured victim-spirit to dive
in a lake close by, to seek relief. None that dived into
that water ever came up alive ; excessive anguish and
quenchless thirst so distracting their thoughts that they
were invariably drowned. Miru would afterwards cook
and eat her victims at leisure. Here was a new event in
her history : the bowl of living centipedes had been dis-
posed of, and yet Tekanae manifested no sign of pain, no
intention to leap into the cooling, but fatal, waters. Long
did Miru wait ; but in vain. At last she said to her
visitor, ' Return to the upper world ' (i.e., to life). ' Only
remember this— do not speak against me to mortals.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MlDWIVES. 47

Reveal not my ugly form and my mode of treating my
visitors. Should you be so foolish as to do so, you will
certainly at some future time come back to my domains,
and I will see to it that you do not escape my vengeance
a second time ! ' Tekanae accordingly left the Shades,
and came back to life " ; but he, it is needless to say, care-
fully disregarded the hag's injunction, or we should not
have had the foregoing veracious account of what happens
below.1

The tortures reserved for Miru's victims cast a weird
light on the warning in the Picard story against eating
and drinking what the devil may offer. But Avhether
poisoning in the latter case would have been the pre-
liminary to a hearty meal to be made off the unlucky
youth by his treacherous host, or no, it is impossible to
determine. What the tales do suggest, however, is that
the food buried with the dead by uncivilized tribes may
be meant to provide them against the contingency of
having to partake of the hospitality of the Shades, and so
afford them a chance of escaping back to the upper air.
But, putting this conjecture aside, we have found the
supposition that to eat of fairy food is to return no more,
equally applicable to the world of the dead as to Fairy-
land. In seeking its meaning, therefore, we must not be
satisfied without an explanation that will fit both. Almost
all over the earth the rite of hospitality has been
held to confer obligations on its recipient, and to
unite him by special ties, to the giver. And even
where the notion of hospitality does not enter, to
join in a common meal has often been held to
symbolize, if not to constitute, union of a very sacred
kind. The formation of blood relationship, or brother-
hood, 'and formal adoption into a tribe or family (cere-
monies well known in the lower culture), are usually, if
not always, cemented in this way. The modern wedding
•breakfast, with its bridecake, is a survival from a very
1 Gill, p. 172.

48 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

ancient mode of solemnizing the closest tie of all ; and
when Proserpine tasted a pomegranate she partook of a
fruit of a specially symbolic character to signify acceptance
of her new destiny as her captor's wife. Hence to par-
take of food in the land of spirits, whether they are
human dead, or fairies, is to proclaim one's union with
them and to renounce the fellowship of mortals.

The other point emphasized in the Swedish tales
quoted just now is the Troll's gratitude, as evidenced by
his gifts to the successful midwife. Before considering
this, however, let us note that these supernatural beings
do not like to be imposed upon. A German midwife who
was summoned by a Waterman, or Nix, to aid a woman
in labour, was told by the latter : " I am a Christian
woman as well as you ; and I was carried off by a Water-
man, who changed me. When my husband comes in
now and offers you money, take no more from him than
you usually get, or else he will twist your neck. Take
good care ! " And in another tale, told at Kemnitz of
the Nicker, as he is there called, when he asks the mid-
wife how much he owes her, she answers that she will
take no more from him than from other people. " That's
lucky for thee," he replies ; " hadst thou demanded more,
it would have gone ill with thee ! " But for all that he
gave her an apron full of gold and brought her safely
home.1

A Pomeranian story marks the transition to a type of
tale wherein one special characteristic of elfin gifts is pre-
sented. For in this case, when the mannikin asked the
midwife what her charge was, she modestly replied : " Oh,
nothing ; the little trouble I have had does not call for
any payment." " Now then, lift up thy apron ! "
answered he ; and it was quickly filled with the rubbish
that lay in the corner of the room. Taking his lantern,
the elf then politely guided her home. When she shook
out the contents of her apron, lo ! it was no rubbish which
1 Keightley, p. 261 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 93.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 49

fell on the ground, but pure, shining minted gold.
Hitherto she and her father had been very poor ; thence-
forth they had no more want their whole lives long.
This gift of an object apparently worthless, which turns
out, on the conditions being observed, of the utmost
value, is a commonplace of fairy transactions. It is one
of the most obvious manifestations of superhuman power ;
and as such it has always been a favourite incident in the
stories of all nations. We have only to do here with the
gift as it appears in the group under analysis ; and in these
cases it presents little variety. In a tale told on the lake
of Zug the dwarf fills the woman's apron with something
at which he bids her on no account look before she is in
her own house. Her curiosity, however, is uncontrol-
lable ; and the moment the dwarf vanishes she peeps
into her apron, to find simply black coals. She, in a rage,
flings them away, keeping only two as evidence of the
shabby treatment she had met with ; but when she got
home these two were nothing less than precious stones.
She at once ran back to where she had shaken out the
supposed coals ; but they were all gone. So a recompense
of straws, dust, birch leaves, or shavings becomes, as
elsewhere told, pure gold, pure silver, or thalers. Nor is
the story confined to Europe. In Dardistan it is related
that a boy, taken down by a Yatsh, or demon, into an
underground palace, is allowed to be present at a Yatsh
wedding. He finds the Yatshes assembled in great force
and in possession of a number of valuables belonging to
the dwellers in his own village. On his return his guide
presents him with a sack full of coals, which he empties
as soon as he is out of sight. One little piece, however,
remains, and is transformed into a gold coin when he
reaches home.1

1 Jahn, p. 72 ; Keightley, p. 275, quoting Miiller, " Bilder und
Sagen aus der Schweiz," p. 119; Birlinger, " Volksthiimliches," vol.
i. p. 42; Kuhn, p. 82; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 128 ; vol. iii. p. 54, quoting

5

50 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Conversely, when the midwife is rewarded with that
which seems valuable it turns out worthless. An Irish-
woman, in relating a professional experience among the
Good People, wound up her story as follows : " The
king slipped five guineas into my hand as soon as I was
on the ground, and thanked me, and bade me good-night.
I hope I'll never see his face again. I got into bed, and
couldn't sleep for a long time ; and when I examined
my five guineas this morning, that I left in the table-
drawer the last thing, I found five withered leaves of
oak — bad scran to the giver ! " This incident recalls
the Barber's tale of his fourth brother in the " Arabian
Nights." This unlucky man went on selling meat to
a sorcerer for five months, and putting the bright new
money in which the latter paid him into a box by itself ;
but when he came to open the box he found in it
nothing but a parcel of leaves, or, as Sir Richard Burton
has it, bits of white paper cut round to look like coin.
Chinese folklore is full of similar occurrences, which we
cannot now stay to discuss. But, returning to western
traditions, there is a way of counteracting the elves'
transforming magic. The wife of a farmer named Niels
Hansen, of Uglerup, in Denmark, was summoned to
attend a troll-wife, who told her that the troll, her
husband, would offer her a quantity of gold ; " but,"
she said, " unless you cast this knife behind you when
you go out, it will be nothing but coal when you reach
home." The woman followed her patient's advice, and
so continued to carry safely home a costly present of
gold.1

The objection of supernatural beings to iron, and its

Miillenhoff, " Sagen, &c., cler Herzogthiimer Schleswig, Holstein und
Lauenburg " ; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 173; Wratislaw, p. 40; Wen-
zig, p. 198 ; Liebrecht, p. loo, citing " Rcsultsof a TourinDardistan,"
part Hi. p. 3.

1 Kennedy, p. 106 ; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 130, quoting Thiele, "Dan-,
mark's Folkesagn."

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 51

power of undoing their charms, will be considered in a
future chapter. The good luck of Niels Hansen's wife
offers meantime another subject of interest ; for it was
due to her own kindness of heart. A short time before
she had been raking hay in a field, Avhen she caught
a large and fat toad between the teeth of her rake.
She gently released it, saying : " Poor thing ! I see that
thou needest help ; I will help thee." That toad was
the troll-wife, and as she afterwards attended her she
was horrified to see a hideous serpent hanging down just
above her head. Her fright led to explanations and an
expression of gratitude on the part of the troll-wife.
This incident is by no means uncommon ; but a very
few examples must suffice here. Generally the woman's
terror is attributed to a millstone hanging over her head.
At Grammendorf, in Pomerania, a maid saw, every time
she went to milk the cows, a hateful toad hopping about
in the stable. She determined to kill it, and would have
seized it one day had it not, in the very nick of time,
succeeded in creeping into a hole, where she could not
get at it. A few days after, when she was again busy in
the stable, a little Ulk, as the elves there are called, came
and invited her to descend with him into Fairyland.
On reaching the bottom of a staircase with her conductor,
she found her services were required for an Ulkwife,
whose time was at hand. Entering the dwelling she
was frightened to observe a huge millstone above her,
suspended by a silken thread ; and the Ulk, seeing her
terror, told her she had caused him exactly the same,
when she chased the poor toad and attempted to
kill it. The girl was compelled to share in the feast
which followed. When it was over she was given a
piece of gold, that she was carefully to preserve ; for so
long as she did so she would never be in want of money.
But her guide warned her at parting never to relate her
experience, otherwise the elves would fetch her again,
and set her under the millstone, which would then

52 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

fall and crush her. Whether this Avas indeed the con-
sequence of her narrating this very true story we do not
know. After some of the beliefs we have been consider-
ing in the foregoing pages it is, however, interesting
to note that no ill attended her eating and drinking in
Fairyland, and that the gold she received did not turn
to dross, though it possessed other miraculous qualities
Avhich might very well have led her to the bad end
threatened by the Ulk. Perhaps a portion of the story
has been lost.1

Sometimes a different turn is given to the tale. A
Swabian peasant-woman was once in the fields Avith her
servant-maid, Avhen they saw a big toad. The Avoman
told her maid to kill it. The latter replied : " No ; I
Avon't do that, and I Avill stand sponsor for it yet once
more." Not long aftenvards she Avas sent for to become
sponsor, and Avas conducted into the lake, Avhere she found
the toad HOAV in guise of a woman. After the ceremony
Avas over, the lake-Avoman rewarded her Avith a bushel of
straAV, and sent by her hand a girdle for her mistress.
On the way home the girl tried the girdle on a tree to
see hoAV it Avould look, and in a moment the tree Avas
torn into a thousand pieces. This AATas the punishment
devised by the lake-A\roman for her mistress, because she
had Avished to put her to death Avhile in the form of a
toad. The straAV Avas, of coxirse, pure gold ; but the
girl foolishly cast it all aAvay except a feAv stalks Avhich
clung to her dress. So a countryman Avho accidentally
spilt some hot broth on a Avitch, disguised as a toad, is
presented by her another day Avith a girdle for his little
son. Suspecting something Avrong, he tries it on his
dog, Avhich at once sAvells up and bursts. This is a Saxon
saga from Transylvania ; an Irish saga brings us to the

1 Jahn, p. 64 ; cf. p. 74, where there are two maidens, one of whom
had saved the toad when the other desired to kill it. They stand
sponsors for the fairy child, and are rewarded with sweepings which
turn to gold ; also Bartsch, vol. i. p. 50, where a sword is suspended,

FAIRY BIRTHS A^D HUMAN MIDWIVES. £3

Same catastrophe. There a girl meets a frog which is
painfully bloated, and kicks it unfeelingly aside, with the
words : " May you never be delivered till I am midwife
to you ! " Now the frog was a water-fairy dwelling in a
lake, into which the girl soon after was conveyed and
compelled to become the fairy's midwife. By way of
reward she is presented with a red cloak, which, on her
way home, she hangs up in admiration on a tree. Well
was it for her that she did so, for it set the tree on fire ;
and had she worn it, as she meant to do, on the following
Sunday at Mass, the chapel itself would have been in a
blaze.1

The fairies' revenge here missed its mark, though
calculated on no trifling scale. Indeed, the rewards they
bestowed were never nicely balanced with the good or ill
they intended to requite, but were showered in open-
handed fashion as by those who could afford to be lavish.
Of this we have already had several instances ; a few
more may be given. At Palermo a tale is told of a
midwife who was one day cooking in her own kitchen
when a hand appeared and a voice cried : " Give to
me ! " She took a plate and filled it from the, food she
was preparing. Presently the hand returned the plate
full of golden money. This was repeated daily ; and the
woman, seeing the generous payment, became more and
more free with her portions of food. At the end of
nine months a knocking was heard at the door ; and,
descending, she found two giants, who caught her up on
their shoulders, and unceremoniously ran off with her.
They carried her to a lady who needed her offices, and
she assisted to bring into the world two fine boys. The
lady evidently was fully alive to her own dignity, for she
kept the woman a proper human month, to the distress
of her husband, who, not knowing what had become of
her, searched the city night and day, and at last gave her
up for dead. Then the lady (a fairy princess she was)
1 Meier, p. 69; Mliller, p. 140; " N. and Q.," 7th ser. vol. v. p. 501.

54 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

asked her if she wished to go, and whether she would be
paid by blows or pinches. The poor midwife deemed
her last hour was come, and said to herself that if she
must die it would be better to die quickly ; so she chose
blows. Accordingly the princess called the two giants,
and sent her home with a large sack of money, which
enabled her to relinquish business, set up her carriage,
and become one of the first ladies in Palermo. Ten
years passed ; and one day a grand carriage stopped at
her door. A lady alighted and entered her palace.
When she had her face to face, the lady said : u Gossip,
do you know me ? " " No, madam." " What ! do you
not remember that I am the lady to whom you came
ten years ago, when these children were born ? I, too,
am she who held out her hand and asked for food. I
was the fairies' captive ; and if you had not been generous
enough to give me to eat, I should have died in the night.
And because you were generous you have become rich.
Now I am freed, and here I am with my sons." The
quondam midwife, with tears in her eye?, looked at her,
and blessed the moment she had done a generous act.
So they became lifelong friends.1

I have given the foregoing tale almost at full length
because it has not, so far as I know, appeared before in
any other than its native Sicilian dress, and because
analogous stories are not common in collections from
Mediterranean countries. This rarity is not, I need
hardly say, from any absence of the mythological
material, and perhaps it may be due to accident in the
formation of the collections. If the story were really
wanting elsewhere in Southern Europe, we might be
permitted the conjecture that its presence in Sicily was
to be accounted for by the Norman settlements there.

1 Pitre, vol. v. p. 23. The story in its present form does not say that
the human food enabled the lady to return from Fairyland, but only
that it saved her life. Probably, however, an earlier version may have
shown the incident in a more primitue form.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 55

One such story, however, is recorded from the Island of
Kimolos, one of the Cyclades, but without the human
captivity in Elfland, without the acts of charity, and
without the gratitude. The Nereids of the Kimoliote
caves are of a grimmer humour than the kindly-natured
underground folk of Celtic and Teutonic lands, or than
the heroine of Palermo. The payment to their human
help is no subject of jest to them. A woman whom they
once called in was roundly told : " If it be a boy you
shall be happy ; but if it be a girl we will tear you in four
parts, and hang you in this cave." The unhappy mid-
wife of course determined that it should be a boy ; and
when a girl arrived she made believe it was a boy,
swaddled it up tightly, and went home. When, eight
days afterwards, the child was unpacked, the Nereids'
rage and' disappointment were great ; and they sent
one of their number to knock at her door in the hope
that she would answer the first summons. Now to
answer the first summons of a Nereid meant madness.
Of this the woman was fully aware ; and her cunning
cheated them even of their revenge.1

Sometimes these supernatural beings bestow gifts of a
more distinctly divine character than any of the fore-
going. A midwife in Strathspey, on one such occasion, was
desired to ask what she would, and it should be granted
if in the power of the fairies. She asked that success
might attend herself and her posterity in all similar
operations. The gift was conferred ; and her great-
grandson still continued to exercise it when Mr. Stewart
was collecting the materials for his Avork on the super-
stitions of the Highlanders, published in 1823. In like
manner the Mohel, to whose adventure I have already
referred, and who was originally an avaricious man,
received the grace of benevolence to the poor, which
caused him to live a long and happy life with his family,
a pattern unto the whole world. The gift was symbolized
1 Bent, p. 46.

56 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

by the restoration to him of his own bunch of keys,
which he found with many others in the possession of
his uncanny conductor. This personage had held the
keys by virtue of his being lord over the hearts of those
who never at any time do good : in other words, he was
the demon of covetousness. Here we have an instance,
more or less conscious, of the tendency, so marked in
Jewish literature, to parable. But the form of the
parable bears striking testimony to its origin in a myth
common to many races. The keys in particular probably
indicate that the recompense at one time took the shape
of a palladium. This is not at all uncommon in the
tales. The Countess Von Ranzau was once summoned
from her castle of Breitenburg in Schleswig to the help
of a dwarf-woman, and in return received, according to
one account, a large piece of gold to be made .into fifty
counters, a herring and two spindles, upon the preser-
vation of which the fortunes of the family were to
depend. The gifts are variously stated in different
versions of the tale, but all the versions agree in attaching
to them blessings on the noble house of Ranzau so long
as they were kept in the family. The Frau Von Hahnen,
in a Bohemian legend, receives for her services to a
water-nix three pieces of gold, with the injunction to
take care of them, and never to let them go out of the
hands of her own lineage, else the whole family would
fall into poverty. She bequeathed the treasures to her
three sons ; but the youngest son took a wife, who with
a light heart gave the fairy gold away. Misery, of
course, resulted from her folly ; and the race of Hahnen
speedily came to an end.1

It is quite possible that the spoons bestowed hy Vitra
upon the clergyman's wife in Lappmark were once re-
puted to be the subject of a similar proviso. So common,

1 Keightley, p. 388, citing Stewart ; Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 50 et seq.,
quoting Miillenhoff and Thiele ; Grohmann, p. 145 ; see also Thorpe,
vol. iii. p. 51.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDW1VES. 57

forsooth, was the stipulation, that in one way or other it
was annexed to well-nigh all fairy gifts : they brought
luck to their possessor for the time being. Examples of
this are endless : one only will content us in this con-
nection ; and, like Vitra's gift, we shall find it in Swedish
Lappmark. A peasant who had one day been unlucky
at the chase, was returning disgusted, when he met a fine
gentleman who begged him to come and cure his wife.
The peasant protested in vain that he was not a doctor.
The other would take no denial, insisting that it was no
matter, for if he would only put his hands upon the lady
she would be healed. Accordingly the stranger led him
to the very top of a mountain, where was perched a
castle he had never seen before. On entering it he
found the walls were mirrors, the roof overhead of silver,
the carpets of gold-embroidered silk, and the furniture of
the purest gold and jewels. The stranger took him into
a room where lay the. loveliest of princesses on a golden
bed, screaming with pain. As soon as she saw the
peasant she begged him to come and put his hands upon
her. Almost stupified with astonishment he hesitated to
lay his coarse hands upon so fair a dame. But at length
he yielded ; and in a moment her pain ceased, and she
was made whole. She stood up and thanked him,
begging him to tarry awhile and eat with them. This,
however, he declined to do, for he feared that if he
tasted the food which was offered him he must remain
there. The stranger whom he had followed then took
a leathern purse, filled it" with small round pieces of
wood, and gave it to the peasant with these words : " So
long as thou art in possession of this purse money will
never fail thee. But if thou shouldst ever see me again,
beware of speaking to me ; for if thou speak thy luck
will depart." When the man got home he found the
purse filled with dollars ; and by virtue of its magical
property he became the richest man in the parish. As
soon as he found the purse always full, whatever he took

58 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

out of it, he began to live in a spendthrift manner and
frequented the ale-house. One evening as he sat there
he beheld the stranger with a bottle in his hand going
round and gathering the drops which the guests shook
from time to time out of their glasses. The rich peasant
was surprised that one who had given him so much did
not seem able to buy himself a single dram, but was
reduced to this means of getting a drink. Thereupon he
went up to him and said : " Thou hast shown me more
kindness than any other man ever did, and I will
willingly treat thee to a little." The words were scarce
out of his mouth when he received such a blow on his
head that he fell stunned to the ground ; and when
again he came to himself the stranger and his purse
were both gone. From that day forward he became
poorer and poorer, until he was reduced to absolute
beggary.1

This story exemplifies every point that has has in-
terested us in this discussion : the need of the Trolls for
human help, the refusal of food, fairy gratitude, and the
conditions involved in the acceptance of supernatural
gifts. It mentions one further characteristic of fairy
nature — the objection to be recognized and addressed by
men who are privileged to see them. But the considera-
tion of this requires another chapter.

1 Foestion, p. 119.

CHAPTER IV.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES (continued).

The magical ointment — Human prying punished by fairies, and by
other supernatural beings — Dame Berchta — Hertha — Lady
Godiva — Analogous stories in Europe — In the East — Religious
ceremonies performed by women only — Lady Godiva a pagan
goddess.

BEFORE we quit the subject of fairy births, we have a
few more stories to discuss. They resemble in their
general tenor those already noticed ; but instead of
one or other of the incidents considered in the previous
chapter we are led to a different catastrophe by the
introduction of a new incident — that of the Magical
Ointment. The plot no longer hinges upon fairy
gratitude, but upon Ivuman curiosity and disobedience.

The typical tale is told, and exceedingly well told —
though, alas ! not exactly in the language of the natives
— by Mrs. Bray in her Letters to Southey, of a certain
midwife of Tavistock. One midnight, as she was getting
into bed, this good woman was summoned by a strange,
squint-eyed, little, ugly old fellow to follow him straight-
way, and attend upon his wife. In spite of her in-
stinctive repulsion she could not resist the command ;
and in a moment the little man whisked her, with
himself, upon a large coal-black horse with eyes of fire,
which stood waiting at the door. Ere long she found
herself at the door of a neat cottage ; the patient was a
decent-looking woman who already had two children,
and all things were prepared for her visit. When the

6o THE SCIENCE Of FAIRY TALES.

child — a fine, bouncing babe — was born, its mother gave
the midwife some ointment, with directions to " strike
the child's eyes with it." Now the word strike in the
Devonshire dialect means not to give a blow, but to rub,
or touch, gently ; and as the woman obeyed she thought
the task an odd one, and in her curiosity tried the effect
of the ointment upon one of her own eyes. At once a
change was wrought in the appearance of everything
around her. The new mother appeared no longer as a
homely cottager, but a beautiful lady attired in white ;
the babe, fairer than before, but still witnessing with the
elvish cast of its eye to its paternity, was wrapped in
swaddling clothes of silvery gauze ; while the elder
children, who sat on either side of the bed, were
transformed into flat-nosed imps, who with mops and
mows were busied to no end in scratching their own
polls, or in pulling the fairy lady's ears with their long
and hairy paws. The nurse, discreetly silent about
what she had done and the wonderful metamorphoses
she beheld around her, got away from the house of
enchantment as quickly as she could ; and the sour-
looking old fellow who had brought her carried her back
on his steed much faster than they had come. But the
next market-day, when she sallied forth to sell her eggs,
whom should she see but the same ill-looking scoundrel
busied in pilfering sundry articles from stall to stall.
So she went up to him, and with a nonchalant air
addressed him, inquiring after his wife and child, who,
she hoped, were both as well as could be expected.
"What ! " exclaimed the old pixy thief, " do you see me
to-day ? " " See you ! to be sure I do, as plain as I see
the sun in the skies ; and I see you are busy into the
bargain," she replied. " Do you so ? " cried he ; " pray,
with which eye do you see all this ? " " With the right
eye, to be sure." " The ointment ! the ointment ! "
exclaimed the old fellow ; " take that for meddling with
what did not belong to you : you shall see me no more."

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 6 1

He struck her eye as he spoke, and from that hour till
the day of her death she was blind on the right side,
thus dearly paying for having gratified an idle curiosity
in the house of a pixy.1

In this tale the midwife acquired her supernatural
vision through gratifying her curiosity ; but perhaps in
the larger number of instances it is acquired by accident.
Her eye smarts or itches ; and without thinking, she rubs
it with a finger covered with the Magical Ointment. In
a Breton variant, however, a certain stone, perfectly
polished, and in the form of an egg, is given to the
woman to rub the fairy child's eyes. In order to test
its virtue she applies it to her own right eye, thus
obtaining the faculty of seeing the elves when they
rendered themselves invisible to ordinary sight. Some-
times, moreover, the eye-salve is expressly given for the
purpose of being used by the nurse upon her own eyes.
This was the case with a doctor who, in a north country
tale, Was presented with one kind of ointment before he
entered the fairy realm and another when he left it.
The former gave him to behold a splendid portico in the
side of a steep hill, through which he passed into the
fairies' hall within ; but on anointing one eye "with the
latter ointment, to that eye the hill seemed restored to
its natural shape. Similarly in Nithsdale a fairy rewards
the kindness of a young mother, to whom she had
committed her babe to suckle, by taking her on a visit
to Fairyland. A door opened in a green hillside, dis-
closing a porch which the nurse and her conductor
entered. There the lady dropped three drops of a
precious dew on the nurse's left eyelid, and they were
admitted to a beautiful land watered with meandering
rivulets and yellow with corn, where the trees were laden
with fruits which dropped honey. The nurse was here
presented with magical gifts, and when a green dew had
baptized her right eye she was enabled to behold further
1 Mrs. Bray, vol. i. p. 174.

62 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

wonders. On returning, the fairy passed her hand over
the woman's eye and restored its normal powers ; but
the woman had sufficient address to secure the wonder-
working balm. By its means she retained for many
years the gift of discerning the earth-visiting spirits ;
but on one occasion, happening to meet the fairy lady
who had given her the child, she attempted to shake
hands with her. " What ee d' ye see me wi' ?" whispered
she. "Wi' them baith," answered the matron. The
fairy accordingly breathed on her eyes ; and even the
power of the box failed afterwards to restore their
enchanted vision. A Carnarvonshire story, probably
incomplete, makes no mention of the ointment con-
ferring supernatural sight ; but when the midwife is to
be dismissed she is told to rub her eyes with a certain
salve, whereupon she at once finds herself sitting on a
tuft of rushes, and not in a palace : baby and all had
disappeared. The sequel, however, shows that by some
means she had retained the power of seeing fairies, at
least with one eye ; for when she next went to the town,
lo and behold ! busily buying was the elf whose wife she
had attended. He betrayed the usual annoyance at
being noticed by the woman ; and on learning with which
eye she saw him he vanished, never more to be looked
upon by her. A tale from Guernsey attributes the
magical faculty to some of the child's saliva which fell
into the nurse's eye. And a still more extraordinary
cause is assigned to it in a tradition from Lower Brittany,
where it is said to be due to the sacred bond formed
between the woman and a masculine elf when she
became godmother and he godfather to the babe.1

The effect of the wonder-working salve or water is
differently described in different tales. The fairy maiden

1 "Revue Celtique," vol. i. p. 231 ; Keightley, p. 312, citing "The
Local Historian's Table-Book," by M. A. Richardson. Cromek, p.
242; "Y Cymmrodor," vol. iv. p. 209; "Revue des Trad. Pop,"
vol. iii. p. 426 ; " Revue Celtique," vol. i. p. 232.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 63

Rockflower speaks of it to her lover, in a Breton tale
from Saint Cast, as " clearing his eyes like her own."
And this is evidently to be understood in all cases.
Accordingly, we find the invariable result is that the
favoured mortal beholds swarms of fairies who were
invisible before. But their dwellings, their clothing, and
their surroundings in general suffer a transformation by
no means always the same. A hovel or a cavern becomes
a palace, whose inhabitants, however ugly they may be,
are attired like princesses and courtiers, and are served
with vessels of silver and gold. On the other hand a
castle is changed by the magical balm into " a big rough
cave, with water oozing over the edges of the stones, and
through the clay ; and the lady, and the lord, and the
child, weazened, poverty-bitten crathurs — nothing but
skin and bone, and the rich dresses were old rags."
This is an Irish picture ; but in the north of England
it is much the same. Instead of a neat cottage the
midwife perceives the large overhanging branches of an
ancient oak, whose hollow and moss-grown trunk she
had before mistaken for the fireplace, where glow-Avorms
supplied the place of lamps. And in North Wales,
when Mrs. Gamp incautiously rubbed an itching eye
with the finger she had used to rub the baby's eyes,
" then she saw with that eye that the wife 'lay on a
bundle of rushes and withered ferns, in a large cave of
big stones all round her, with a little fire in one corner
of it ; and she also saw that the lady was only Eilian,
her former servant-girl, whilst with the other eye she
beheld the finest place she had ever seen." More terrible
still, in another story, evidently influenced by the Welsh
Methodist revival, the unhappy woman beheld " herself
surrounded by fearful flames ; the ladies and gentlemen
looked like devils, and the children appeared like the
most hideous imps of hell, though with the other parts
of her eyes all looked " grand and beautiful as before." x
1 Sebillot, " Contes," vol. ii. p. 34 ; " Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iii.

64 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

However disturbing these visions may have been, the
nurse was generally discreet enough to maintain perfect
silence upon them until she got back to the safety
of her own home. But it is not very surprising if her
tongue sometimes got the better of her, as in a story
obtained by Professor Rhys at Ystrad Meurig. There
the heroine said to the elf-lady in the evening, as she was
dressing the infant : " You have had a great many visitors
today." To this the lady sharply replied : " How do
you know that ? Have you been putting the ointment
to your eyes ? " Thereupon she jumped out of bed, and
blew into her eyes, saying : " Now you Avill see no more."
The woman could never afterwards see the fairies, nor
was the ointment entrusted to her again. So in the
Cornish tale of Cherry of Zennor, that young damsel,
being hired by a fairy widower to keep house for him,
has the assurance to fall in love with him. She touches
her own eyes with the unguent kept for anointing the
eyes of her master's little boy, and in consequence
catches her master kissing a lovely lady. When he next
attempts to kiss Cherry herself she slaps his face, and,
mad with jealousy, lets slip the secret. No fairy widower
with any self-respect could put up with such conduct as
this ; and Cherry has to quit Fairyland. Her parents had
supposed her dead ; and when she returned they believed
at first it was her ghost. Indeed, it is said she was never
afterwards right in her head ; and on moonlight nights,
until she died, she would wander on to the Lady Downs
to look for her master.1

The earliest writer who mentions a story of this type

p. 428; Sebillot, " Litt. Orale," p. 21; Kennedy, p. 106 ;
Keightley, p. 311; "Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 166 ; Wirt Sikes,
p. 87. This story purports to be quoted from HowcHs, p. 349 — an
impossible reference, seeing that the volume in question only con-
tains 194 pages. The peculiarities of Mr. Sikes' authorities, however,
need very little comment.

1 " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 194 ; Hunt, p. 120.

FAIRY BlRTrtS AND HUMAN MlDWtVES. 65

is Gervase of Tilbury, marshal of the kingdom of Aries,
who wrote about the beginning of the thirteenth century.
He professes to have himself met with a woman of Aries
who was one day washing clothes on the banks of the
Rhone, when a wooden bowl floated by her. In trying
to catch it, she got out of her depth and was seized by a
Drac. The Dracs were beings who haunted the waters of
rivers and dwelt in the deep pools, appearing often on
the banks and in the towns in human form. The woman
in question was carried down beneath the stream, and,
like Cherry of Zennor, made nurse to her captor's son.
One day the Drac gave her an eel pasty to eat. Her
fingers became greasy with the fat ; and she happened to
put them to one of her eyes. Forthwith she acquired a
clear and distinct vision under the water. After some
years she was allowed to return to her husband and
family ; and going early one morning to the market-place
of Beaucaire, she met the Drac. Recognizing him at
once, she salute I him and asked after the health of his
wife and child. " With which eye do you see me ? "
inquired the Drac. The woman pointed to the eye she
had touched with the eel-fat ; and thrusting his finger
into it, the Drac vanished from sight.1

The only punishment suffered in these cases is the
deprivation of the power of seeing fairies, or banishment
from their society. This seems mild enough : much
more was generally inflicted. The story first quoted
relates what seems to be the ordinary form of vengeance
for disregard of the prohibition to use the fairy eye-salve,
namely, loss of sight in the offending eye. Spitting or
striking is usually the means adopted by the elves to
effect this end. Sometimes, however, the eye is torn
from its socket. Whether there is much to choose be-
tween these different ways of undergoing the punishment
is doubtful ; but it should be noted that the last-men-
tioned mode is a favourite one in Brittany, and follows
1 Gerv. Tilb. Dec. iii. c. 85.
6

66 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

not so much on recognition as on denunciation by the
virtuous mortal of the elf's thieving propensities. " See
what thieves these fairies are ! " cried a woman who
watched one of them putting her hand into the pocket of
a country woman's apron. The fairy instantly turned
round and tore out her eye. u Thieves ! " bawled another
on a similar occasion, with the same result. In a Cornish
tale a woman is entrusted in her own house with the care
of an elf-child. The child brought remarkable prosperity
to the house, and his foster-mother grew very fond of
him. Finding that a certain water in which she Avas
required to wash his face made it very bright, she deter-
mined to try it on her own, and splashed some of it into
her eye. This conferred the gift of seeing the little
people, who played with her boy, but had hitherto been
invisible to her ; and one day she was surprised to meet
her nursling's father in the market — stealing. Recog-
nition followed, and the stranger exclaimed :

" Water for elf, not water for self,
You've lost your eye, your child, and yourself."

From that hour she was blind in the right eye. When
she got home the boy was gone ; and she and her
husband, who had once been so happy, became poor and
wretched.1

Here poverty and wretchedness, as well as the loss of
an eye, were inflicted. In a Northumbrian case the
foster-parent lost his charge and both eyes. So in a story
from Guernsey, the midwife, on the Saturday following
her attendance on the lady, meets the husband and father
in a shop filling his basket to right and left. She at once

1 Sebillot, " Contes," vol. ii. p. 42 ; " Litt. Orale,"p. 23 ; "Trad, et
Super." p. 109. But in these cases the operation was performed pain-
lessly enough, for the victims were unaware of their loss until they came
to look in the glass. In one of Prof. Rhys' stories the eye is pricked
with a green rush ; " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 178 ; Hunt, p. 83. See
also Sebillot, "Contes," vol. i. p. 119.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 67

comprehends the plenty that reigned in his mysterious
dwelling. " Ah, you wicked thief, I see you ! " she cried.
"You see me; how?" he inquired. "With my eyes,"
she replied. " In that case I will soon put you out of
power to play the spy," he answered. So saying, he spat
in her face, and she became blind on the spot. A Danish
story also relates that a midwife, who had inadvertently
anointed her eyes with the salve handed to her by the
elf-folk for the usual purpose, was going home afterwards
and passed by a rye-field. The field was swarming with
elves, who were busy clipping off the ears of rye. Indig-
nantly she cried out : " What are you doing there ? "
The little people thronged round her, and angrily
answered : " If thou canst see us, thus shalt thou be
served ; " and suiting the action to the word, they put
out her eyes.1

Human beings, however, betray their meddling with
fairy ointment in other ways than by speech. The fol-
lowing curious story was related as current at his native
place, by Dr. Carre of St. Jacut-de-la-Mer, to M. Sebillot.
A fisherman from St. Jacut was the last to return one
evening at dusk from the scene of his labours ; and as he
walked along the wet sand of the seashore, he suddenly
came upon a number of sea-fairies in a cavern, talking and
gesticulating with vivacity, though he could not hear
what they said. He beheld them rub their eyes and
bodies with a sort of pomade, when, lo ! their appearance
changed, and they were enabled to walk away in the
guise of ordinary women. " Hiding carefully behind a
large rock, he watched them out of sight ; and then, im-
pelled by curiosity, he made straight for the cave. There
he found what was left of the pomade, and taking a little
on his finger, he smeared it around his left eye. By this

1 Keightlcy, p. 310 ; " Revue cles Trad. Pop." vol. iii. p. 426 ;
Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 129, quoting Thiele. In another Danish tale
given on the same page, the woman's blindness is attributed to her
having divulged what she had seen in Fairyland.

68 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

means he found himself able to penetrate the various
disguises assumed by the fairies for the purpose of robbing
or annoying mankind. He recognized as one of that
mischievous race a beggar-woman whom he saw a few
days afterwards going from door to door demanding
charity. He saw her casting spells on certain houses, and
peering eagerly into all, as if she were seeking for some-
thing to steal. He distinguished, too, when out in his
boat, fish which were real fish from fish which were in
reality "ladies of the sea," employed in entangling the
nets and playing other tricks upon the seamen. Attending
the fair of Ploubalay, he saw several elves who had as-
sumed the shapes of fortune-tellers, showmen, or gamblers,
to deceive the country folk ; and this permitted him to
keep clear of their temptations. But as he smiled to
himself at what was going on around him, some of the
elves, who were exhibiting themselves on a platform in
front of one of the booths, caught sight of him ; and he
saw by the anger in their looks that they had divined his
secret. Before he had time to fly, one of them, with the
rapidity of an arrow, struck his clairvoyant eye with a
stick and burst it. That is what happened to him who
would learn the secrets of the sea-fairies.1

Such was the punishment of curiosity ; nor is it by
fairies alone that curiosity is punished. Cranmere Pool
on Dartmoor is, we are told, a great penal settlement for
refractory spirits. Many of the former inhabitants of the
parish are supposed to be still there expiating their
ghostly pranks. Of the spirit of one old farmer it is
related that it took seven clergymen to secure him.
They, however, succeeded at last in transforming him into
a colt, which was given in charge to a servant-boy with
directions to take him to Cranmere Pool, and there on
the brink of the pool to slip off the halter and return
instantly without looking round. He did look round, in
spite of the warning, and beheld the colt in the form of a
1 Sebillot, "L:tt. Orale," p. 24.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 69

ball of fire plunge into the water. But as the mysterious
beast plunged he gave the lad a parting kick, which
knocked out one of his eyes, just as the Calender was
deprived of his eye in the " Arabian Nights." Still worse
was the fate that overtook a woman, who, at midnight on
New Year's Eve, when all water is turned into wine, was
foolhardy enough to go to a well. As she bent over it to
draw, one came and plucked out her eye, saying :

" All water is wine,
And thy two eyes are mine."

A variant of the story relates that the woman herself
disappeared, and gives the rhyme as

" All water is wine,

And what is thereby is mine." *

At the end of the last chapter we noted as a charac-
teristic of fairy nature the objection to be recognized and
addressed by men who are privileged to see them. We
are now able to carry the generalization a step further.
For, from the instances adduced in the foregoing pages,
it is obviously a common belief that supernatural per-
sonages, without distinction, dislike not merely being
recognized and addressed, but even being seen, or at all
events being watched, and are only willing to be mani-
fested to humanity at their own pleasure and for their
own purposes. In the stories of the Magical Ointment it
is not so much the theft as the contravention of the
implicit prohibition against prying into fairy business
that rouses elfin anger. This will appear more clearly
from the fuller consideration of cases like those mentioned
in the last paragraph, in which punishment follows
directly upon the act of spying. In Northamptonshire,

1 "Choice Notes," p. 170; Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 8. The latter form
of the story seems more usual. See Gredt, pp. 28, 29, where we are
plainly told that the hapless mortals are fetched away by the devil,

70 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

we learn that a man whose house was frequented by
fairies, and who had received many favours from them,
became smitten with a violent desire to behold his invisible
benefactors. Accordingly, he one night stationed himself
behind a knot in the door which divided the living-room
of his cottage from the sleeping-apartment. True to
their custom, the elves came to disport themselves on his
carefully-swept hearth, and to render to the household
their usual good offices. But no sooner had the man
glanced upon them than he became blind ; and so pro-
voked were the fairies at this breach of hospitality that
they deserted his dwelling, and never more returned to
it. In Southern Germany and Switzerland, a mysterious
lady known as Dame Berchta is reputed to be abroad on
Twelfth Night. She is admittedly the relic of a heathen
goddess, one of whose attributes was to be a leader of the
souls of the dead ; and as such she is followed by a band of
children. For her the peasants on Twelfth Night set a
repast, of which, if she be pleased, she and her troop
partake. A servant boy at a peasant's farm in the Tirol
on one such occasion perceived Lady Berchta's approach,
and hid himself behind the kneading-trough to watch
what she would do. She immediately became aware of
his presence as he peeped through a chink, and called to
one of her children to go and stop that chink. The child
went and blew into it, and the boy became stark-blind.
Thus he continued for a year, nor could any doctor help
him, until an old experienced man advised him to go to the
same place on the following Twelfth-tide, and falling down
on his knees behind the kneading-trough, to bewail his
curiosity. He accordingly did so. Dame Berchta came
again, and taking pity on him, commanded one of her
children to restore his sight. The child went and blew
once more through the chink, and the boy saw. Berchta,
however, and her weird troop he saw not ; but the food
set out for them had disappeared.1

1 .Steinberg, p. 132 (see also Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 12) ; Von Alpen-

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 71

The tradition of the goddess Hertha lingered until
recently, and perchance lingers still, in the island of
Riigen. She had her dwelling, it is believed, in the
Herthaburg ; and often yet, in the clear moonlight, out
of the forest which enfolds that hill, a fair lady comes
surrounded by her maids to bathe in the lake at its foot.
After awhile they emerge from the waters, and, wrapt
again in their long white veils, they vanish flickering
among the trees. But to the belated wanderer, if any
such there be, who looks upon this scene, it is a vision of
dread ; for he is drawn by irresistible might to the lake
wherein the white lady is bathing, to be swallowed up in
its depths. And it is said that every year the lady must
lure one unhappy mortal into the flood. So in the classic
mythology, if Ovid report aright, Actaeon met the fearful
fate of transformation into a stag by " gazing on divinity
disrobed," and was torn in pieces by his own hounds.
Hertha was, indeed, according to Tacitus, more terrible
than Diana, since death was the penalty even when duty
called her slaves to the awful sight.1

These traditions have led us away from the Magical
Ointment, which thus appears to be only one aspect of the
larger theme of the objection on the part of supernatural
beings to human prying. Nor need we regret having
strayed ; for we are brought naturally to one of the most
interesting of our national legends, namely, that of Lady
Godiva ; and it will well repay a little consideration. As
generally told today it bears an unmistakable resemblance
to the foregoing stories ; but there seems some difficulty
in classing it with them, because Peeping Tom is wanting
in the most ancient version known to us.

Godiva, properly Godgifu, was an undoubted historical

burg, p. 63. See a similar story in Grimm, " Teut. Myth." p. 276,
from Burner, " Folk-tales of the Orlagau." In the latter case, however,
the punishment seems to have been inflicted for jeering.

1 Jahn, p. 177, quoting Temme, " Volkssagen " ; Ovid, " Melam."
1. iii. fab. 3 ; Tacitus, " Germ." c. 40.

72 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

personage, the wife of Leofric, Earl of the Mercians, and
mother of the Earls Morcar and Edwin, and of Edith,
wife first of Gruffydd, Prince of North Wales, and after-
wards of King Harold the Second. The earliest mention
of her famous ride through Coventry is by Roger of
Wendover, who wrote in the beginning of the thirteenth
century, or a hundred and fifty years or thereabout after
her death. His account of the matter is as follows :
" The countess Godiva, who was a great lover of God's
mother, longing to free the town of Coventry from the
oppression of a heavy toll, often with urgent prayers
besought her husband, that from regard to Jesus Christ
and His mother, he would free the town from that service,
and from all other heavy burdens ; and when the earl
sharply rebuked her for foolishly asking what was so
much to his damage, and always forbade her evermore
to speak to him on the subject ; and while she, on the
other hand, with a woman's pertinacity, never ceased to
exasperate her husband on that matter, he at last made
her this answer : ' Mount your horse, and ride naked
before all the people, through the market of the town
from one end to the other, and on your return you shall
have your request.' On which Godiva replied : ' But will
you give me permission if I am willing to do it ?' 'I
will,' said he. Whereupon the countess, beloved of God,
loosed her hair and let down her tresses, which covered
the whole of her body like a veil, and then mounting her
horse and attended by two knights, she rode through the
market place without being seen, except her fair legs ;
and having completed the journey, she returned with
gladness to her astonished husband, and obtained of him
what she had asked, for Earl Leofric freed the town of
Coventry and its inhabitants from the aforesaid service,
and confirmed what he had done by a charter." '
According to the more modern version, the inhabitants

1 Roger of Wenclover, " Flowers of History," sub anno 1057. I
quote from Dr. Giles' translation.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 73

were enjoined to remain within doors, and, in the
Laureate's words :

"one low churl, compact of thankless earth,
The fatal byword of all years to come,
Boring a little auger-hole in fear,
Feep'd — but his eyes, before they had their will,
Were shrivell'cl into darkness in his head,
And dropt before him. So the powers who wait
On noble deeds, cancell'd a sense misus'd."

It is not my business now to prove that the legend is
untrue in fact, or I should insist, first, that its omission
by previous writers, who refer both to Leofric and Godgifu
and their various good deeds, is strong negative testimony
against it ; and I should show, from a calculation made
by the late Mr. M. H. Bloxam, and founded on the record
of Domesday Book, that the population of Coventry in
Leofric's time could scarcely have exceeded three hundred
and fifty souls, all in a greater or less degree of servitude,
and dwelling probably in wooden hovels each of a single
story, with a door, but no window.1 There was, there-
fore, no market on the scale contemplated by Roger of
Wendover, — hardly, indeed, a town through which
Godgifu could have ridden ; and a mere toll would have
been a matter of small moment when the people were all
serfs. The tale, in short, in the form given by the
chronicler, could not have been told until after Coventry
had risen to wealth and importance by means of its
monastery, whereof Godgifu and her husband were the
founders. Nobody, however, now asserts that Roger
of Wendover's narrative is to be taken seriously.
What therefore I want to point out in it is that
Godgifu's bargain was that she should ride naked
before all the people. And this is what the historian
understands her to have done ; for he states that she rode

1 See his Presidential Address to the Warwickshire Naturalists' and
Archaeologists' Field Club, 1886.

74 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

through the market-place without being seen, except her
fair legs, all the rest of her body being covered by her
hair like a veil. He tells us nothing about a proclama-
tion to the inhabitants to keep within doors ; and of
course Peeping Tom is an impossibility in this version of
the tale.

Coventry has for generations honoured its benefactress
by a periodical procession, wherein she is represented by
a girl dressed as nearly like the countess on her ride as
the manners of the day have permitted. When this pro-
cession was first instituted, is unknown. The earliest
mention of it seems to be in the year 1678. Its object
then was to proclaim the Great Fair, and Lady Godiva
was merely an incident in it. The Lansdowne MSS. in
the British Museum contain an account of a visit to
Coventry by the "captain, lieutenant, and ancient " of
the military company of Norwich, who travelled in the
Midland Counties in August 1634. These tourists
describe St. Mary's Hall as adorned at the upper end
" with rich hangings, and all about with fayre pictures, one
more especially of a noble lady (the Lady Godiva) whose
memory they have cause not to forget, for that shee pur-
chas'd and redeem'd their lost infringed liberties and
ffreedomes, and obtained remission of heavy tributes
impos'd upon them, by undertaking a hard and unseemly
task, w'ch was to ride naked openly at high noone day
through the city on a milk-white steed, w'ch she willingly
performed, according to her lord's strict injunction. It
may be very well discussed heere whether his hatred or
her love exceeded. Her fayre long hayre did much offend
the wanton's glancing eye." In this record we have no
additional fact except the mention of "high noone day"
as the time of the journey ; for the allusion to " the
wanton's glancing eye " is too vague to be interpreted
of Peeping Tom, and the writer does not refer to
any commemorative procession. It has been supposed,
therefore, that the carnival times of Charles the Second

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 75

both begot the procession and tacked Peeping Tom
to the legend. But it is more likely that the pro-
cession is as old as the fair, which Avas held under
a charter of Henry the Third, granted in 1217. Such
pageants were not uncommon in municipal life,
and were everywhere to the taste of the people.
Whether Lady Godiva was a primitive part of it is
another question. The mention of the procession in
1678 occurs in a manuscript volume of annals of the city,
in a handwriting of the period. The entry in question
is as follows : "31 May 1678 being the great Fair at
Coventry there was an extraordinary " [Here the
bottom of the page is reached ; and in turning over the
chronicler has omitted a word, for on the top of the next
page we read :] " Divers of the Companies " [*'.£., the
City Guilds] " set out each a follower, The Mayor Two,
and the Sheriffs each one and 2 at the publick charge,
there were divers Streamers with the Companies arms
and Ja. Swinnertons Son represented Lady Godiva." '

This brief entry is by no means free from ambiguity.
Perhaps all that we are warranted in inferring from it is
that the annual procession was, that year, of unusual
splendour. Whether, as has been conjectured, it was the

1 MS. marked D. This entry is an interpolation in a list of mayors
and sheriffs in a different handwriting. There are several such inter-
polations in the volume. Coventry possesses a number of MS. volumes
of annals, one of which (see below) seems to date from the latter part
of the sixteenth century, and the rest from the latter part of the seven-
teenth. In the MS. marked F. (considered by Mr. W. G. Fretton, F.S.A.,
to be in the handwriting of John Tipper, of Bablake, Coventry, a
schoolmaster and local antiquary at the end of the seventeenth and
beginning of the eighteenth centuries), and also in the MS. in the
British Museum (Additional MSS. 11,364), the entry runs simply: —
" 1678 Michaell Earle (Mercer) Mayor ; Francis Clark, George
Allatt, Sherriffs. This year ye severall Companies had new streamers,
and attended ye Mayor to proclaim ye faire, and each company cloathed
one boy or two to augment ye show." The latter MS. elsewhere speaks
of the story of Godiva's ride as " comonly known, and yearly
comemorated by the Mayor, Aldermen^ and ye severall companies."

76 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES

first time Lady Godiva had ever made her appearance,
there seems more doubt. Apart from any evidence, there
is no improbability in supposing that she may have formed
part of earlier processions ; though it may be that during
the period of Puritan ascendency the show had been
neglected and the lady in particular had been discoun-
tenanced. If this be so, however, it is difficult to account
for the manner in which her figure is referred to by
the writer, unless there were some personal reason con-
nected with James Swinnerton, or his son, undiscover-
able by us at this distance of time.

But whatever doubt may exist as to Godiva's share
in the early processions, there appears no less as to the
episode of Peeping Tom. Looking out of an upper story
of the King's Head, at the corner of Smithford Street, is
an oaken figure called by the name of the notorious tailor.
It is in reality a statue of a man in armour, dating no
further back than the reign of Henry the Seventh ; and,
as a local antiquary notes, " to favour the posture of his
leaning out of window, the arms have been cut off at the
elbows." I This statue, now generally believed to have
been intended for St. George, could not have been thus
appropriated and adapted to its present purpose until its
original design had been forgotten and the incongruity of
its costume passed unrecognized. This is said to have
been in 1678, when a figure, identified with the one in
question, was put up in Grey Friars Lane by Alderman
Owen.

It must not be overlooked that there may have been
from the first more than one version of the legend, and
that a version rejected by, or perhaps unknown to, Roger
of Wendover and the writers who followed him may have

1 This statue used to be decked out on the occasion of the procession
in the long peruke and neckcloth of the reign of Charles II. See T.
Ward, " Collections for the Continuation of Dugdale's Antiquities of
Warwickshire" (2 vols., fol. MS., Brit. Mus., Additional MSS., Nog.
29,264, 29,265), vol. ii. fol. 143.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 77

always included the order to the inhabitants to keep
within doors, of which Peeping Tom would seem to be
the necessary accompaniment. Unfortunately, we have
no evidence on this point. The earliest record of such
a version appears in one of the manuscript volumes
already alluded to. It has not been hitherto printed ;
and it is so much at variance, alike with the legend
preserved in the thirteenth century, and the poem of
the nineteenth century, that I quote it entire : — " The
Franchisment and Freedome of Coventry was purchased
in manner Following. Godiua the wife of Leofric Earle
of Chester and Duke of March requesting of her Lord
freedome for this That Towne, obtained the same upon
condition that she should ride naked through the same ;
who for the Love she bare to the Inhabitants thereof,
and the perpetuall remembrance of her Great Affection
thereunto, performed the same as Followeth. In the
forenoone all householders were Commanded to keep in
their Families shutting their doores and windows close
whilst the Dutchess performed this good deed, which
done she rode naked through the midst of the Towne,
without any other Coverture save only her hair. But
about the midst of the Citty her horse neighed, whereat
one desirous to see the strange Case lett downe a Window,
and looked out, for which fact or for that the Horse did
neigh, as the cause thereof, Though all the Towne were
Franchised, yet horses were not toll-free to this day."1

The manuscript in which this passage occurs is copied
from an older manuscript which appears to have been

1 MS. marked E, Coventry, seventeenth century. A careful exami-
nation of the language of Roger of Wendover, Matthew Paris, John
of Brompton, and Matthew of Westminster, shows that Roger of
Wendover's account is the source of the other three, Matthew Paris
copying most closely, and John ot Brompton most freely. John of
Brompton and Matthew of Westminster omit the escort. Their state-
ment as to Godiva's being unseen refers to the hair which covered her ;
and the latter informs us, with a touch of rhetoric, that Leofric regarded
it as a miracle.

78 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

compiled in the sixteenth century. Unfortunately, how-
ever, the latter is imperfect, a leaf having been torn
out at this very point. We cannot, therefore, say with
certainty that the account of the famous ride was ever
comprised in it. But the expressions made use of imply
that the windows were closed with shutters rather than
glass, and that they were opened by letting down the
shutters, which were either loose or affixed by a hinge
to the bottom sills. It is a question exactly at what
period glass came into general use for windows in the
burgesses' houses at Coventry. Down almost to the
middle of the fifteenth century all glass was imported ;
and consequently it was not so common in the midlands
as near the coast, especially the south-eastern coast.
We shall probably be on the safe side if we assume that
in the early years of the sixteenth century, at all events,
the ordinary dwelling-house at Coventry was no longer
destitute of this luxury. It would seem, therefore, that
the story, in the form here given, cannot be later, and
may be much earlier, than the latter years of the fifteenth
century.

Failing definite evidence to carry us back further, it
becomes of importance to inquire whether there are
any traditions in other places from which we may
reason. In the "History of Gloucestershire," printed
by Samuel Rudder of Cirencester in 1779, we read
that the parishioners of St. Briavels, hard by the
Forest of Dean, " have a custom of distributing yearly
upon Whitsunday, after divine service, pieces of bread
and cheese to the congregation at church, to defray
the expenses of which every householder in the parish
pays a penny to the churchwardens ; and this is said
to be for the privilege of cutting and taking the wood
in Hudnolls. The tradition is that the privilege was
obtained of some Earl of Hereford, then lord of the
Forest of Dean, at the instance of his lady, upon the
same hard terms that Lady Godiva obtained the privi-

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 79

leges for the citizens of Coventry." It appears that
Rudder, while in the main accurately relating both
custom and tradition, has made the mistake of supposing
that the payment was made to the churchwardens,
whereas it was in all probability made to the constable
of the castle of St. Briavels as warden of the Forest of
Dean. The custom is now in a late stage of decadence,
and local inquiries have failed to elicit any further details
throwing light on the point under consideration.1

I am not aware of any other European tradition that
will bear comparison with that of Godiva, but Liebrecht
relates that he remembers in his youth, about the year
1820, in a German newspaper, a story according to which
a countess frees her husband's subjects from a heavy
punishment imposed by him. She undertakes to walk a
certain course clad only in her shift, and she performs it,
but clad in a shift of iron.2 The condition is here eluded
rather than fulfilled ; and the point of the story is conse-
quently varied. It would be interesting to have the tale
unearthed from the old newspaper, and to know where
its scene was laid, and whether it was a genuine piece of
folklore.

Eastern tales, however, furnish us repeatedly with
incidents in which a lady parades the streets of a city,
and during her progress all folk are bidden to close their
shops and withdraw into their houses on pain of death.
The example of the Princess Badroulboudour will occur
to every reader of the " Arabian Nights." This, however,
is by no means a solitary example. In the story of Kamar
Al-Zaman and the Jeweller's Wife, one of the stories of
the " Nights " rejected on moral grounds by Lane, but
translated by Burton, a dervish relates that he chanced

1 Rudder, p. 307. The Rev. W. Taprell Allen, M.A., Vicar of
St. Briavels, has been kind enough to supply me with the correction
from local inquiries and intimate acquaintance with the traditions and
affairs of the parish extending over many years. See also " Gent. Mag.
Lib." (Manners and Customs), p. 230.

- Liebrecht, p. 104.

8o THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

one Friday to enter the city of Bassorah, and found the
streets deserted. The shops were open ; but neither man
nor woman, girl nor boy, dog nor cat was to be seen.
By and by he heard a sound of drums, and hiding him-
self in a coffee-house, he looked out through a crevice
and saw forty pairs of slave girls, with uncovered heads
and faces displayed, come walking through the market,
and in their midst a lady riding unveiled and adorned
with gold and gems. In front of her was a damsel
bearing in baldric a great sword Avith haft of emerald and
tassels of jewel-encrusted gold. Pausing close to the
dervish, the lady said to her maidens : " I hear a noise of
somewhat within yonder shop ; so do ye search it, lest
haply there be one hidden there, with intent to enjoy a
look at us while we have our faces unveiled." Accord-
ingly they searched the shop opposite the coffee-house,
and brought forth a man. At the lady's command the
damsel with the sword smote off his head, and leaving
the corpse lying on the ground, the procession swept on.
It turned out that the lady was the wife of a jeweller to
whom the King of Bassorah was desirous of granting a
boon, and at her request the boon obtained was a procla-
mation commanding that all the townsfolk should every
Friday enter the mosques two hours before the hour of
prayer, so that none might abide in the town, great or
small, unless they were in the mosques or in the houses
with the doors locked upon them ; but all the shops were
to be left open. Then the lady had permission to ride
with her slave-women through the heart of the town,
and none were to look on her from window or lattice ;
and every one whom she found abroad she was at liberty
to kill A similar incident is related in the life of Kur-
roglii, the robber-poet of Persia, where a beautiful princess
passes in state through the bazaars every Friday on her
way to the mosque, while all the men are banished.1
1 Burton, "Nights," vol. ix. p. 255; Burton, " Supp. Nights," vol.
iii. p. 570 (Appendix by Mr. W. A. Clouston). Kurroglu flourished in
the second half of the seventeenth century.

FAIRY BiRTrts AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 81

Here, again, soni3 one was of course found playing the
spy.

A version of the incident, which can be traced further
back in literary form than either of the foregoing, occurs
in the " Ardshi-Bordshi." This book is a Mongolian
recension of a Sanskrit collection of stories concerning
Vikramaditya, a monarch who, if he ever lived, seems to
have flourished about the beginning of the Christian era.
He was celebrated, like Solomon, for his wisdom and his
might ; and his name became the centre of a vast accre-
tion of legends. Some of these legends were translated
into Mongolian late in the Middle Ages, and formed a
small collection called after Ardshi-Bordshi, the nominal
hero. In the story to which I wish to direct attention, a
certain king has a daughter bearing the name of Sunshine,
of whom he was so jealous that if any one looked upon
her his eyes were put out, and the man who entered her
apartments had his legs broken. Naturally, the young
lady got tired of being thus immured, and complained to
her father that, as she had no opportunity of seeing man
or beast, the time hung heavily on her hands ; and she
begged him to let her go out on the fifteenth of the month
and look about her. The king agreed to this ; but, the
sly old rascal ! nothing was further from his intention
than to gratify his daughter's longing for masculine
converse. Wherefore he issued a decree that all objects
for sale were to be exposed openly to the view, all cattle
to be left indoors, the men and women were to withdraw
into their houses and close their doors and windows, and
if any one came forth he should be severely punished.
On the appointed day, Sunshine, surrounded by her
ladies, and seated in a brand-new chariot, drove through
the town, and viewed the merchandise and goods exposed
for sale. The king had a minister, named Moon, who
could not restrain his curiosity ; and he peeped at her
from a balcony. The princess, as he did so, caught sight
of him and made signs to him, which were interpreted

7

82 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

by the penetration of his wife to be an invitation to meet
her clandestinely. The wife hardly displayed what most
ladies would deem u a proper spirit " in advising com-
pliance ; and the consequence of taking that advice
would have been serious trouble both to himself and to
the princess, had it not been for the ready wit of the two
women, who got over the difficulty by contriving an
ingenious equivocation not unknown in other stories, by
which the princess cleared herself and her lover on oath.1
It is true that in these tales the lady who rides forth is
not naked ; but to ride openly and unveiled would be
thought almost as immodest in countries where strict
seclusion is imposed upon women. All these tales
include the Peeping Tom incident ; and it appears,
indeed, so obvious a corollary to the central thought of
Lady Godiva's adventure that it is hardly likely to have
required centuries for its evolution. From some tra-
ditions, however, it is absent. A story belonging to the
Cinderella cycle, found at Smyrna, relates that when a
certain king desired to marry his own daughter, the
maiden, by the advice of her Fate, demanded as the
price of compliance three magnificent dresses. Having
obtained these, she asked permission to go unseen (like
Badroulbadour) to the bath. The king, to gratify her,
forbade his subjects on pain of death to open their shops
or to show themselves in the streets while she passed by.
She thus got an opportunity of escaping from the city,
of which she did not fail to make use, — greatly, no doubt,
to her unnatural father's disgust. An Indian tradition also
tells us that the inhabitants of Chamba were under the
necessity of digging a canal for irrigation, but when it

1 This story is edited by Jiilg in Mongolian and German (Innsbruck,
1867). Miss Busk gives a free adaptation rather than a translation of
the German version, "Sagas," p. 315. Prof. De Gubernatis, "Zool.
Myth." vol. i. p. 138, of course interprets it as a sun-myth — an inter-
pretation to which the names Sunshine and Moon, and the date of the
adventure (the fifteenth of the month), lend themselves.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 83

was dug, owing to the enchantments of an evil spirit, not
a drop of water could be got to flow along its course. A
magician at last found out that the spell could be dis-
solved if the beautiful and virtuous young princess of
Chamba would consent to traverse a given distance of
the plain entirely naked, in full view of the populace, and
to lose her head when the journey was accomplished.
After much hesitation, her compassion triumphed over
her shame ; and she undertook the task. But lo ! as she
advanced, a thick line of young trees arose to right and
left, completely hiding her from cynical eyes. And the
shady canal is shown today by the good people of
Chamba as one of the most authentic monuments of their
history.1

So far the stories. Concerning which it must be
observed that they are evidence that the myth of Lady
Godiva is widely diffused in the East, and that the spy
is usually, though not always, part of the tale. The
Smyrncean version must probably be thrown out of the
reckoning. It is, as I have already mentioned, a variant
of the Cinderella cycle. The problem of the plot is how
to get the heroine unseen out of her father's clutches.
This is commonly effected by the simple mechanism of
a disguise and a night escape. Other methods, I need
not now detail, are, however, sometimes adopted ; and
the excuse of going to the bath, with the order to the
people to close their shops and keep within doors, would
seem to reveal nothing more than the unconscious
influence of Aladdin or some other of the Eastern stories.
Throwing this out, then, as accidental, an overwhelming
proportion of the analogues cited contains the spy. It
would be dangerous to reason on the supposition that
the proportions of all the Asiatic variants extant corre-
spond with those of the variants cited ; but we are at
liberty to assume that a large number, if not the majority,

1 Von Ilahn, vol. ii. p. 225 ; "Tour tin Monde," vol. xxi. p. 342,
quoted by Liebrccht, p. 105.

§4 Wife SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

comprise the incident of Peeping Tom. None of them
was known in Europe until Galland published his trans-
lation of the "Arabian Nights" in the year 1704 —
upwards of two centuries later than the latest period at
which the story as given in the Coventry manuscript
can have come into existence.

But the -stories, though they may go a little way to
help us in regard to the incident of Peeping Tom, throw
no light on the origin of the legend, or of the procession.
Let us therefore turn to one or two curious religious
ceremonies, which may have some bearing upon it.
A potent spell to bring rain was reported as actually
practised during the Gorakhpur famine of 1873-4.
It consisted of a gang of women stripping themselves
perfectly naked, and going out by night to drag the
plough across a field. The men were kept carefully
out of the way, as it was believed that peeping by
them would not only vitiate the spell, but bring
trouble on the village. It would not be a long step
from this belief to a story in which peeping was alleged
to have taken place with disastrous effects, either to
the village, or (by favour of the deities intended to be
propitiated) to the culprit himself. At the festival of the
local goddess in the village of Seriir, in the Southern
Mahratta country, the third and fourth days are devoted
to private offerings. Many women, we are told, on these
days walk naked to the temple in fulfilment of vows,
" but they were covered with leaves and boughs of trees,
and surrounded by their female relations and friends." *

The performance of religious rites by women alone,
when men are required under heavy penalties to absent
themselves, is, indeed, not very uncommon in savage life.
Nor is it confined to savage life. When Rome was at the
height of her civilization and her triumphs, the festival
of the Bona Dea was rendered notorious by the divorce

1 "Panjab N. and Q."vol. iii. pp. 41, 115; "Journal EthnoL Soc.
London," N.S., vol. i. p. 58.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 85

of Caesar's wife and by legal proceedings against an
aristocratic scoundrel, who, for the purposes of an intrigue
with her, had violated the sacred ceremonies. The
Bona Dea, or Good Goddess, was a woodland deity, the
daughter and wife of Faunus. Her worship had de-
scended from a remote antiquity ; and her annual festival
was held in the month of December, and was attended
only by women. The matrons of the noblest families of
Rome met by night in the house of the highest official of
the state to perform the traditional ceremonies of the
goddess, and to pray for the well-being of the Roman
people. Only women, and those of the most unsullied
character, were permitted to attend ; and the breach of
this rule by Clodius, disguised in woman's garb, consti-
tuted a heinous offence against the state, from the
penalties of which he only escaped, if we may believe
Cicero, by bribing the judges.1

At the village of Southam, not far from Coventry,
another procession in honour of Godiva formerly took
place. Very little is known about it now, save one
singular fact, namely, that there were two Godivas in
the cavalcade, and one of them was black. Southam was
part of the property possessed by Earl Leofric ; and it
has been suggested that this is enough to account for the
commemoration of Godgifu. It would no doubt be an
excellent reason for affixing her renowned name to a
periodical ceremony already performed there. But it
would hardly be a reason for commemorating her
extortion of privileges in which the inhabitants of
Southam did not share ; and it would leave the black
lady unexplained. She may, indeed, have been a mere
travesty, though the hypothesis would be anything but
free from difficulty. Here, again, if we have recourse to
the comparison of ceremonies, AVC may obtain some light.

1 The information relating to the Bona Dea has been collected by
Freller, "Rom. Myth." vol. i. p. 398; and see the authorities he has
pited.

86 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Among the tribes of the Gold Coast of Africa the wives
of men who have gone to war make a daily procession
through the town. They are stark naked, painted all
over with white, and decorated with beads and charms.
Any man who is found in the town is attacked and
driven away. And on the occasion of a battle the women
imitate the actions the men are thought to be performing,
with guns, sticks, and knives. The Gold Coast is a long
way off ; but not only do black women there paint
themselves white in their sacred rites, white women in
Britain have painted themselves, if not black, at least a
dark blue. Pliny records that both matrons and unmar-
ried girls among the Britons in the first century of the
Christian era were in the habit of staining themselves all
over with the juice of the woad ; and he adds that, thus
rivalling the swarthy hue of the ^Ethiopians, they go on
these occasions in a state of nature. We are sometimes
taught that when the English invaded Britain, the
natives whom they found here were all driven out or
massacred. There are, however, many reasons for doubt-
ing that this wholesale destruction was as complete as
has been imagined. The name of Coventry betrays in
its termination a Celtic element ; and this could hardly
have entered into it had there not been in the neigh-
bourhood a considerable British-speaking population.
What is more likely than that at Southam this popula-
tion continued and preserved its customs, and that one
of such customs was that very religious rite of which
Pliny speaks ? Unhappily he tells us nothing about the
rite itself, nor the deity in whose honour it was performed.
But it would not involve a great stretch of fancy to
suppose that in the black lady of Southam we have a
survival of the performance. It is not too much to say
that this explanation would have the merit of being
intelligible and adequate.1

1 Ellis, p. 226 ; Pliny, " Nat. Hist." 1. xxii. c. I. For the infor-
mation as to the procession at Southam I am indebted to Mr. W. (1.
Fretton, who formerly lived there.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 87

In all countries ceremonies of a special character are
usually dramatic. They represent, or are believed to
represent, actions of the divinities in whose honour they
are performed. The rites of the Bona Dea, we know,
were of this kind ; and they consequently degenerated
into orgies of a shameful character. The Coventry pro-
cession is admittedly a representation of Godgifu's ride.
It is not now, nor has it been so long as we have any
records of it — that is to say for two hundred years — con-
nected with any professed act of worship ; but this is not
incompatible with its being the long-descended relic of
some such observance as those I have described. The
introduction of Christianity did not annihilate the older
cults. The new religion incorporated some of them ; and
although the rest were no longer regarded as sacred,
the feeling of obligation remained attached to them for
centuries. They were secularized, and ultimately de-
graded for the most part into burlesque. Such as were
connected with municipal life, or, as we shall see in a
future chapter, with family life, retained a measure of
solemnity long after it had passed away from rites which
had been abandoned to an unorganized mob. This is
well illustrated by the contrast between the ceremonial
at Coventry (whatever its origin) and that at St. Briavels.
The stronger hand of a municipality would have a
restraining power wanting to that of a village com-
munity, or a parish — especially if the latter had been
governed by a lord, who in later times had been shorn
of his authority, or had ceased to reside among, or take
an interest in the affairs of, his tenantry. Something
like this I take to have been the history of St. Briavels.
There does not appear from Rudder's account to have
been, in his time at least, any pageant commemorative of
the achievement of the lady to whom the parishioners
reckoned themselves to owe their privileges ; nor have I
been able to trace one by local inquiries. But the tradi-
tion is at St. Briavels unmistakably connected with a

88 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

religious and social rite. The distribution of food on a
day of high and holy festival in the church to the congre-
gation, and paid for by a levy upon every householder in
the parish, can point to nothing else than a feast of
the whole community as a solemn act of worship. Its
degeneracy in more recent times has been thus described
to me by the Rev. W. Taprell Allen : — " For many years
it was customary to bring to the church on Whitsun-day
afternoon baskets of the stalest bread and hardest cheese,
cut up into small pieces the size of dice. Immediately
after the service the bread and cheese were scrambled for
in the church, and it was a custom to use them as pellets,
the parson coming in for his share as he left the pulpit.
About 1857, or perhaps a year or two later, the unseemly
custom was transferred from the church to the church-
yard, the bread and cheese being thrown down from the
church tower. Later on it was transferred to the road
outside the church gates. It now lasts but a few minutes.
A few years ago all the roughs of the Forest used to
come over, and there was much drinking and fighting ;
but now it is very different. The custom has in fact
been dying out." From these later stages of decay the
Godiva pageant was saved by becoming a municipal
festival. And while at St. Briavels we can watch
the progress of degeneration from a point at which
the religious character of the ceremony had not quite
vanished, down to the most unblushing burlesque, and to
its ultimate expulsion from consecrated precincts, — at
Coventry we see but one phase, one moment, at which
the rite, if it ever had any title to that name, seems to
have been photographed and rendered permanent.

It is obvious, however, that a feast is not a dramatic
representation of a ride ; and the point requiring elucida-
tion is the intimate relation of the feast at St. Briavels
with a story apparently so irrelevant as that of the
countess' ride. To explain this, we must suppose that
the feast was only part- — doubtless the concluding part —

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. 89

of a ceremony, and that the former portion was a pro-
cession, of which the central figure was identical with
that familiar to vis at Coventry. But such a procession,
terminating in a sacred feast, would have had no meaning
if the naked lady represented a creature merely of flesh
and blood. It is only explicable on the hypothesis that
she was the goddess of a heathen cult, such as Hertha (or
Nerthus), whose periodical progress among her subject
tribes is described in a well-known passage by Tacitus,1
and yet survives, as we have seen, in the folklore of
Riigen. Now the historian tells us that Hertha was
Mother Earth, the goddess of the soil, whose yearly cele-
bration would appropriately take place in the spring or
early summer. To her the produce of the land would be
ascribed ; and in her name and by her permission wrould
all agricultural operations be performed. Such a goddess
it must be who is honoured by the ceremonies already
noticed in India. Such a goddess, at any rate, was the
Bona Dea ; and to such a goddess we may readily believe
would be ascribed the privilege of cutting wood. It is
quite consistent with this that the payment by every
household at St. Briavels should be made to the warden
of the forest, and that it should be spent by him on the
goddess' festival. We are left to surmise what were the
tolls and burdens at Coventry, so vaguely referred to by
Roger of Wendover. Pigs and horses, we learn from two
different sources, were not included in the exemptions
obtained by the countess ; and the reason for this in the
latter case is accounted for by the incident of Peeping
Tom.

One other point is worthy of mention : both at St.
Briavels and at Coventry the commemoration takes place
nearly at the same time of year. The Great Fair at
Coventry opens on the day after Corpus Christi Day — •
that is to say, the Friday after Trinity Sunday. Corpus
Christi Day itself was the day on which the celebrated
1 "Germania," c, 40; cf. c. 9,

90 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Coventry Miracle Plays were performed ; and the Fair
opened the next morning. At the same time of year too
— namely, on Ascension Day — a custom, for which there
is no explanation in any record, was observed at St.
Michael's Church, York, when ale and bread and cheese
were yearly given away in the church to the poor of the
parish.1 Although Ascension Day is separated by three
weeks from Corpus Christi, the movable character of the
feasts would bridge this gulf without any difficulty ; and
heathen observances of the same nature, and referring to
the same season, when they had to be reconciled to the
Christian calendar, might easily find places in some
instances on one day and in others on another day.
Godgifu and her husband were honoured as founders of
the Benedictine monastery at Coventry, which rose upon
the ruins of an earlier house of Benedictine riuns founded
by Osburg, a lady of the royal house, nearly two hundred
years before. This nunnery had been destroyed in the
Danish wars about the year 1016. Consequently, if
any legend, or ceremony, was known or practised at
Coventry in connection with some traditional patroness,
the name of Godgifu was ready to hand to be identified
with it. Through the monastery Coventry first rose to
wealth and repute ; and the townsfolk on this score owed
a debt of gratitude to the foundress, though there is no
record whether any special day was set apart in her
honour.

On the whole, then, there is ground for supposing
that the legend and procession of Lady Godiva
are survivals of a pagan belief and worship located at
Coventry ; that the legend was concerned with a being
awful and mysterious as Dame Berchta, or Hertha her-
self ; and that the incident of Peeping Tom was from the
first, or at all events from an early date, part of the story.
The evidence upon which these conclusions rest may be
shortly recapitulated thus : —

1 Nicholson, p. 32.

FAIRY BIRTHS AND HUMAN MIDWIVES. QI

1. The absence of historical foundation for the tradition.

2. The close resemblance between the tradition and
other stories and superstitions which unquestionably deal
with heathen goddesses, such as Berchta and Hertha.

3. The equally close analogy between the procession
and that described in Eastern stories, which, so far as we
know, could not have reached England at the latest
period when the procession could possibly have been
instituted ; and between the procession and certain
heathen rites practised not only in the East, but as near
home as Rome and Germany, — nay, in Britain itself.

4. The occurrence of a similar procession at Southam,
in the same county, having the special feature of a black
lady, best explained as a survival of certain rites
practised by the ancient Britons.

5. The connection between the analogous legend at St.
Briavel's and the remains of a sacred communal feast that
can hardly be anything else than the degraded remnant
of a pagan observance.

The want of historical evidence cannot, of course, be
overlooked ; but we must remember that in investigating
traditions and traditional observances we are dealing with
a phase of civilization of which history only yields rare
and indirect glimpses. It is the absence of direct evidence
that, not only in the science of Folklore, but also in the
physical sciences, causes resort to the evidence afforded by
comparison of other structures and processes. On the
validity of this evidence, and -the reasoning based upon it,
nearly all our scientific learning depends. In spite, there-
fore, of the defects in the historical evidence, and in the
absence of evidence to the contrary, it can scarcely be
denied that the analogies in both custom and legend here
brought together amount to a fairly strong presumption
in favour of the conclusions I have ventured to draw from
them.

If I may formulate my conjecture as to the course of
development actually pursued, it would be something like

92 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

this. The ceremony at Coventry is a survival of an
annual rite in honour of a heathen goddess, from which
men were excluded. This rite, like all such, would have
been a part of the tribal cult, and intimately associated
with the tribal life and organization. Side by side with
it a myth would have been evolved, accounting for the
performance as a dramatic representation of an event in
the goddess' career. This myth would have been similar
in outline to those recited above, and would have com-
prised an explanation of the exclusion of men. When
Christianity spread through the district the inhabitants
would still cling to their old custom and their old myth,
as we know Avas done elsewhere, because it was bound up
with their social life. But, if not violently put down by
the rulers of the land, both custom and myth would,
little by little, lose their sacred character as the new
religion increased in influence, and would become trans-
formed into municipal ceremonies. This process would
be slow, centuries being required for its completion ; but
it would be aided by the gradual development of the
tribe first into a settled village community, and thence
into a mediaeval township. With the loss of sanctity
the reason for prohibiting the attendance of men would
vanish ; but the tradition of it would be preserved in the
incident of the story which narrated Peeping Tom's
treachery.1

1 I am indebted to Mr. Samuel Timmins, F.S.A., and to Mr. W.
G. Fretton, F.S.A., for a great amount of local information and other
assistance which they have spared no pains to render me, and to the
Town Clerk of Coventry for permission to inspect the invaluable local
manuscripts belonging to the Corporation.

CHAPTER V.

CHANGELINGS.

The belief in changelings — Precautions against changing — Motives
assigned for changing — Attempts frustrated — How changelings
may be known — Their physical characteristics — Devices to lead
them to betray themselves — Their subsequent treatment — Journey
to Fairyland to fetch back the true child — Adult changelings.

A NEW-BORN babe, of all human beings the most helpless,
has always roused compassion and care. Nor is it a
matter for wonder if its helplessness against physical
dangers have led to the assumption that it is exposed
to spiritual or supernatural evils more than its elders.
At all events it seems a widespread superstition that
a babe, when first it makes its appearance in this world,
must be protected not merely against the natural perils
of its condition, but also against enemies of an even
more subtle and fearful description. The shape taken
by this superstition in north-western Europe is the belief
in Changelings — a belief which I propose to examine in
the present chapter.1

By the belief in changelings I mean a belief that
fairies and other imaginary beings are on the watch for
young children, or (as we shall see hereafter) sometimes
even for adults, that they may, if they can find them
unguarded, seize and carry them off, leaving in their

1 The belief in changelings is not confined to Europe, though the
accounts we have of it elsewhere are meagre. It is found, as we shall
see further on, in China. It is found also among the natives of the
Pacific slopes of North America, where it is death to the mother to
suckle the changeling. Dorman, p. 24, citing Bancroft.

94 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

place one of themselves, or a block of wood animated by
their enchantments and made to resemble the stolen
person. Wise mothers take precautions against such
thefts. These precautions are tolerably simple, and for
the most part display the same general character. First
and foremost among them is the rite of baptism, whereby
the little one is admitted into the Christian Church.
Faith in the efficacy of baptism as a protection from
the powers hostile to man is not less strong among
communities nominally Protestant than among Roman
Catholics, and has doubtless operated to bring many
children within the pale of the visible Church who might
otherwise have been long in reaching that sacred en-
closure. Examples of the belief in the power of baptism
against the depredations of fairies could easily be cited
from all Protestant countries. Without doing this, we
may just pause to note that baptism was also reckoned
a remedy for disease. This is doubtless a relic of the old
creed which refers all human ailments to witchcraft and
other spiritualistic origins. Mr. Henderson, speaking of
the notion prevalent in the north of England that sickly
infants never thrive until they are christened, relates a
story communicated to him by a clergyman, within whose
personal knowledge it had happened. He says : " The
infant child of a chimney-sweeper at Thorne, in the West
Riding of Yorkshire, was in a very weak state of health,
and appeared to be pining away. A neighbour looked
in, and inquired if the child had been baptized. On an
answer being given in the negative, she gravely said, ' I
would try having it christened.' The counsel was taken,
and I believe with success." The same belief is found
both in North and South Wales. It is also testified
to by a Scottish clergyman, who moreover adduces the
following conversation as illustrative of it and of " an
undefinable sort of awe about unbaptized infants, as well
as an idea of uncanniness in having them without baptism
in the house," which is entertained among the labouring

CHANGELINGS. 95

classes in the north-east of Scotland. " Oh, sir," said the
wife of a working man to the minister, on asking him
to baptize her child along with others, whose mothers
were present, " this registration's the warst thing the
queentry ever saw ; it sud be deen awa' wee athegeethir ! "
" Why ? " asked the minister, in astonishment at the
woman's words and earnestness of manner. " It'll pit oot
kirsnin athegeethir. Ye see the craitirs gets their names,
an we jist think that aneuch, an' we're in nae hurry
sennin for you." How far, as this anecdote dimly sug-
gests, it was the giving of a name which was supposed
to protect a child, I cannot say : more probably it was
the dedication to God involved in baptism. This is
countenanced by the precaution said to have been ob-
served in Nithsdale when a pretty child was born to
consecrate it to God, and sue for its protection by " taking
the Beuk " and other acts of prayer and devotion.1

Putting aside such ceremonies as these which may be
supposed distinctly Christian, there were other charms
looked upon as efficacious. Thus in Scotland it was
deemed highly judicious to keep an open Bible always
near a child, and even to place the holy volume beneath
the head of a woman in labour. In some parts of
Germany it is enough to lay a single leaf out of a Bible
or prayer-book in the cradle, until by the baptism of the
infant the danger of robbery passes away ; and a prayer-
book is also placed under the pillow of the newly-made
mother, who is at that time' specially liable to fall under
the power of the underground folk. Indeed a prayer-
book, or the mere repetition of a Paternoster, is equally
valuable with a Bible for these purposes ; and if, by the
neglect of any of these precautions, an opportunity be

1 See a curious Scottish ballad given at length, " F. L. Record,"
vol. i. p. 235; Henderson, p. 15; " Cymru Fu N. and Q." vol. ii.
p. 144; Gregor, p. II (cf. Ilarland and Wilkinson, p. 22l) ; Cromek,
p. 247. See Webster, p. 73, where a witch carries away a child who
is not blessed when it sneezes.

96 ±HE SClENCk OF FAtRV TALES.

given to the foe, the child may yet be saved by the
utterance of the name of Jesus Christ at the moment
when the change is being effected. Holy water and the
sign of the cross, in Ireland, or a rosary blessed by a
priest, in Picardy, enjoy a similar reputation.1

All these means of prevention are veneered with some
sort of Christianity ; but there are others which display
Heathenism naked and unblushing. While a child in
Mecklenburg remains unbaptized it is necessary to burn
a light in the chamber. Nor is the superstition confined
to one district : it is common all over Germany and
Denmark ; it was once common in England ; it is found
in Ireland ; it is found among the Lithuanians on the
shores of the Baltic ; it was practised by the ancient
Romans, and appears to be a relic of the sacred character
anciently imputed to fire. In the island of Lewis fire used
to be carried round women before they were churched
and children before they were christened, both night and
morning ; and this was held effectual to preserve both
mother and infant from evil spirits, and (in the case of
the infant) from being changed. The Sad Dar, one of
the sacred books of the Parsees, contains directions to
keep a continual fire in the house during a woman's
pregnancy, and after the child is born to burn a lamp
for three nights and days — a fire, indeed, is declared to
be better — " so that the demons and fiends may not be
able to do any damage and harm." By way of enforcing
this precept we are told that when Zoroaster was born,
a demon came at the head of a hundred and fifty other
demons, every night for three nights, to slay him, but
they were put to flight by seeing the fire, and were con-
sequently unable to hurt him.2

1 Napier, p. 40; "F. L. Journal," vol. i. p. 56; Kuhn, pp. 365, 196;
Knoop, p. 155; " Zeits. f. Volksk." vol. ii. p. 33; Kennedy, p. 95 ;
Carnoy, p. 4 ; " p\ L. Journal," vol. ii. p. 257.

2 Bartsch, vol. i. pp. 64, 89 ; vol. ii. p. 43 ; Kuhn, p. 195 ; Knoop,
loc. cit. ; Jahn, pp. 52, 71 ; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 174 ; " Zeits. f. Volksk."

CHANGELINGS. 97

Iron or steel, in the shape of needles, a key, a knife,
a pair of tongs, an open pair of scissors, or in any other
shape, if placed in the cradle, secured the desired end.
In Bulgaria a reaping-hook is placed in a corner of
the room for the same purpose. I shall not stay now
to discuss the reason why supernatural beings dread
and dislike iron. The open pair of scissors, however,
it should be observed, has double power ; for it is not
only of the abhorred metal, — it is also in form a cross.
The use of the cross in baptism was probably one of
the reasons for the efficacy of that rite against felonious
fairies. At all events, over a very wide area the cross
is thought a potent protection ; nor is the belief by
any means confined to Christian lands. Mr. Mitchell-
Innes tells us that the fear of changelings exists in
China. " To avert the calamity of nursing a demon,
dried banana-skin is burnt to ashes, which are then mixed
with water. Into this the mother dips her finger and
paints a cross upon the sleeping babe's forehead. In a
short time the demon soul returns — for the soul wanders
from the body during sleep and is free — but, failing to
recognize the body thus disguised, flies off. The true
soul, which has been waiting for an opportunity, now
approaches the dormant body, and, if the mark has been
washed off in time, takes possession of it ; but if not, it,
like the demon, failing to recognize the body, departs, and
the child dies in its sleep." * How to hit the exact

vol. ii. loc. cit. W. Map, Dist. ii. c. 14 ; Brand, vol. ii. p. 8, note ; Lady
'Wilde, vol. i. pp. 71, 73; Schleicher, p. 93; Tertullian, "Adv. Nationes,"
1. ii. c. ii ; Brand, vol. ii. p. 334 note, quoting Martin," History of the
Western Islands " ; Train, vol. ii. p. 132 ; " Sacred Books of the East,"
vol. xxiv. p. 277. As to the use of fire in China, see '.' F. L. Journal,"
vol. v. p. 225 ; and generally as to the efficacy of fire in driving off evil
spirits see Tylor, vol. ii. p. 177.

1 Grimm, " Teut. Myth." p. 468; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 2, vol. iii.
p. 45 ; Train, vol. ii. p. 133 ; Garnett, pp. 231, 315 ; " F. L. Journal,"
vol. v. p. 225. In Eastern Prussia a steel used for striking a light, a
hammer, or anything else that will strike fire, is used. This seems to
combine the dread of steel with that of fire (Lemke, p. 41).

8

98 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

moment between the flight of the demon and the advent
of the true soul doubtless puzzles many a Chinese mother
fully as much as the cross puzzles the two competing
souls. But when she is successful she baffles the evil
spirit by deceit, of which the cross is made the instru-
ment ; though we may well believe that the child is
not disguised in this way without reference to the cross's
inherent sanctity ; for it is a religious symbol among
nations who never heard the gospel of the Crucified.

Spirits whose baleful influences are feared by man are
happily easily tricked. To this guilelessness on their
part must be attributed another strange method of de-
feating their evil designs on children. It appears to be
enough to lay over the infant, or on the bed beside the
mother, a portion of the father's clothes. A shepherd's
wife living near Selkirk was lying in bed one day with
her new-born boy at her side, when she heard a sound
of talking and laughter in the room. Suspecting what
turned out to be the case, she seized in great alarm her
husband's waistcoat, which was lying at the foot of the
bed, and flung it over herself and the child. The fairies,
for it was they who were the cause of the noise, set up
a loud scream, crying out : " Auld Luckie has cheated
us o' our bairnie ! " Soon afterwards the woman heard
something fall down the chimney, and looking out she
saw a waxen effigy of her baby, stuck full of pins, lying
on the hearth. The would-be thieves had meant to sub-
stitute this for the child. When her husband came home
he made up a large fire and threw the doll upon it ; but,
instead of burning, the thing flew up the chimney amid
shouts of laughter from the unseen visitors. The sugges-
tion seems to be that the sight of the father's clothes
leads " the good people " to think that he himself is
present watching over his offspring. Some articles of
clothing, however, seem to have special virtue, such as
a right shirt-sleeve or a left stocking, though wherefore
is not very clear j and in China, about Canton, a fisher-

CHANGELINGS. 99

man's net is employed with as little apparent reason. In
Sweden the babe is wrapped in red cloth, which we may
be allowed to conjecture is intended to cozen the fairies
by simulating fire.1

Moreover, certain plants are credited with a similar
gift. In Germany orant (whatever that may be), blue
marjoram, and black cumin ; and in Denmark garlic —
nasty enough surely to keep any beings off — and bread
are used. The Danes, too, place salt in the cradle or
over the door. The Italians fear not only fairies who rob
them of their children, but also witches who tear the
faces of unbaptized infants. These are both old super-
stitions, dating in one form or other from classic times.
To baulk the witches of their prey it is in some places
customary to keep a light burning in the chamber at
night, and to affix at the door of the house the image of
a saint, hanging to it a rosary and an unravelled napkin ;
while behind the door are put a jar full of salt and a
brush. A two-fold defence is thus built up ; for the
witch, beholding the image of the saint and the rosary,
will straightway retire ; or if these fail to warn her off,
she will on entering be compelled to count the grains of
salt, the broken threads of the napkin, and the twigs of
the brush — a task that will keep her occupied from mid-
night, when at the earliest she can dare appear, until dawn,
when she must slink away without having been able to
attain her object. Among the Greeks witches are believed
to have great power. They seek new-born babes to suck
their blood or to prick them to death with sharp instru-
ments. Often they inflict such injuries that a child
remains for ever a cripple or an invalid. The Nereids of
the fountains and springs are also on the watch " to
exchange one of their own fractious offspring for a
mortal babe." Constant watchfulness, and baptism as

1 Grimm, " Tent. Myth." loc. cit. ; Train, vol. ii. loc. cit. ; Henderson,
p. 14; " F. L. Journal," vol. v. p. 224; " Zeits. f. Volksk." vol. ii.
p. 33 ; " N. and Q." ;th ser. vol. x. p. 185.

100 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

soon as the Church permits it, are therefore necessary.
In England it seems to have been held in former
days that witches stole children from their cradles
before baptism to make an oil or unguent by boiling
them to a jelly. A part of this jelly they used to drink,
and with the remainder they rubbed their bodies. This
was the orthodox means of acquiring magical powers.
It is a Sicilian belief that the hands of unbaptized chil-
dren are used by witches in their sorceries.1

As we might expect, the reason why unbaptized babes
are held to be so liable to these attacks is that until the
initiatory rite has been performed they are looked upon
as heathen, and therefore peculiarly under the dominion
of evil spirits. In Sicily and in Spain an infant until
baptism is called by the opprobrious epithets of Pagan,
Turk, Moor, Jew. Even women will not kiss it, for to kiss
a Moor, at all events in Spain, is sin ; though, on the other
hand, to kiss an unbaptized child, if no one else have
kissed it, is sovereign against toothache. By the Greeks
these little innocents are regarded not merely as not
Christians, but as really less human than demoniac in
their nature. This is said, indeed, to be the teaching of
the Church. The lower classes, at least (and, presumably
therefore, not long ago the upper classes) believe it firmly ;
so that an unbaptized babe is called Drakos (feminine,
Drakoula), that is to say, serpent or dragon. This is the
same opprobrious title that we found Gervase of Tilbury

1 Henderson, loc. cit. ; Bartsch, vol. ii. p. 192 ; Pitre, vol. xv. pp. 154
note, 155; vol. xvii. p. 102, quoting Castelli, " Credenze ed usi " ;
Horace, " Ep. acl Pison," v. 340 ; Dorsa, p. 146 ; Wright, " Middle
Ages," vol. i. p. 290; Garnett, p. 7° > " Melusine," vol. v. p. 90,
quoting English authorities. Map, Dist. ii. c. 14, gives a story of
babies killed by a witch. St. Augustine records that the god Silvanus
was feared as likely to injure women in childbed, and that for their pro-
tection three men were employed to go round the house during the
night and to strike the threshold with a hatchet and a pestle and sweep
it with a brush ; and he makes merry over the superstition (" De Civ.
Dei," 1. vi. c. 9).

CHANGELINGS. TO I

applying to the evil spirits infesting the waters of the
Rhone ; and we cannot doubt that it is intended to con-
vey an imputation of Satanic nature.1 The extent of
this superstition would form an interesting subject of
inquiry. If it could be established as existing now or
formerly among other Christian nations (and the super-
stitions of Sicily and Spain just cited point to this) it
would help to clear up much of the difficulty surrounding
the subject of changelings, especially the motives actuating
both fairies and witches in their depredations. And, as
infant baptism is by no means exclusively a Christian
rite, research among heathen nations would be equally
pertinent.

Meanwhile the motive usually assigned to fairies in
northern stories is that of preserving and improving their
race, on the one hand by carrying off human children to
be brought up among the elves and to become united
with them, and on the other hand by obtaining the milk
and fostering care of human mothers for their own
offspring. Doubts have been expressed by the German
poet and mythologist, Karl Simrock, whether this was
the primitive motive. He suggests that originally these
spirits were looked upon as wholly beneficent, and even
the theft of children was dictated by their care for the
best interests of mankind. Nor does he hesitate to lay it
down that the selfish designs just mentioned were first
attributed to them when with growing enlightenment
the feeling manifested itself that the kindly beings were
falling into decay.2

It might be sufficient to reply that no spiritual existences
imagined by men in a state of civilization such as sur-
rounded our Celtic and Teutonic forefathers were ever

1 Pitre, vol. xii. p. 304, note; vol. xv. p. 154; " F. L. Espan."
vol. ii. p. 51 ; De Gubernatis, " Usi Natal." p. 219, quoting Bezoles,
" Le Bapteme."

2 Bartsch, vol. i. p. 46; Jahn, p. 89 ; Grimm, " Teut. Myth." p. 468 :
Simrock, p. 418.

102 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

regarded as unswervingly benevolent : caprice and vin-
dictiveness, if not cruelty, are always elements of their
character. Beyond this general consideration, however,
there is a further and conclusive answer in the fact that
there is no warrant in tradition for the supposition that
could we penetrate to the oldest strata of mythical belief
we should not discover selfish designs imputed to " the
good people." The distinguished commentator himself
is bound to admit that the belief in their need of human
help is entwined in the very roots of the Teutonic myths.
It is, indeed, nothing but the mediaeval and Teutonic
form of tenets common to all the nations upon earth.
The changeling superstition and the classic stories of
children and adults beloved by gods of high and low
degree are consistent with this belief, and inseparable
from it. The motive is so far comprehensible : what is
wanted is to know whether any special relations, such as
are pointed at by the Greek epithet Drakos, were held to
exist between the mysterious world and newly-born babes
which would render the latter more obnoxiousto attack than
elder children or adults ; or whether, as I have put it at
the beginning of this chapter, their helplessness alone
suggested their exceeding danger. To solve the riddle
we must wait for a larger accumulation of documents.1

1 There is another motive for the robbery of a human creature, men-
tioned only, I think, in the Romance of Thomas the Rhymer, namely, that
at certain seasons the foul fiend fetches his fee, or tribute of a living soul,
from among the underground folk. Several difficulties arise upon this ;
but it is needless to discuss them until the motive in question be found
imputed elsewhere than in a literary work of the fifteenth century, and
ballads derived therefrom.

Since the foregoing note was written my attention has been
drawn to the following statement in Lady Wilde, vol. i. p. 70:
" Sometimes it is said the fairies carry off the mortal child for
a sacrifice, as they have to offer one every seven years to the
devil in return for the power he gives them. And beautiful young
girls are carried off, also, either for sacrifice or to be wedded to the
fairy king." It is easier to generalize in this manner than to pro-
duce documents in proof. And I think I am expressing the opinion of

CHANGELING 5. lO^

But in the best regulated families it is not always pos-
sible to prevent the abduction from being attempted,
and sometimes accomplished, in spite of every precaution.
One night a Welsh woman, waking in a fright in her
husband's absence, missed her baby. She sought for it
and caught it upon the boards above the bed : the fairies
had not succesded in bearing it any further away.
Another felt her boy being taken from her arms ; where-
upon she screamed and held him tightly, and, according
to her own expression, " God and me were too hard for
them." The child grew up to become a famous preacher.
A peasant woman in Mecklenburg who ventured to
sleep without a light was attacked by an elf-woman.
The stranger seized the child, but was baffled by the
woman's determination ; for she struggled and shrieked
for her husband, and when he hurried in with a light the
fairy vanished.1

Nor is it always the mother who arrests the theft.
A trick frequently played by the dwarfs in Northern
Germany on the birth of a child was to pinch a cow's
ear ; and when the animal bellowed and everybody
ran out to know why, a dwarf would slip indoors and
effect the change. On one such occasion the father saw
his infant being dragged out of the room. In the nick
of time he grasped it and drew it towards himself. The
changeling left in its place was found in the bed ; and
this he kept too, defying the efforts of the underground
folk to regain it. At a place in North Jutland it hap-
pened many years ago in a lying-in room that the mother
could get no sleep while the lights were burning. So
her husband resolved to take the child in his arm, in
order to keep strict watch over it so long as it was dark.

all folklore students when I say that, with all respect for Lady Wilde,
I would rather not lay any stress upon her general statements. Indeed,
those of anybody, however great an authority, need to be checked by
the evidence of particular instances. I await such evidence.

1 Sikes, p. 62 ; cf. Brand, vol. ii. p. 334 note ; Bartsch, vol. i. p. 46.

164 THE SCIENCE Of FAIRY TALES.

But, unfortunately, he fell asleep ; and on being awakened
by a shake of the arm, he saw a tall woman standing by
the bed, and found that he had an infant in each arm.
The woman instantly vanished ; and as he had forgotten
in which arm he had held his child, there he lay without
knowing which of the two children was his own. A boy,
who was watching his younger sister while his parents
Avere both from home, saw a small man and woman come
from behind the oven. They told him to give them the
little one ; and when he refused they stepped to the cradle
and endeavoured to take the babe by force. The boy,
however, was strong and bold, and laid about him with
such determination that the robbers at length took to
flight. On the Lithuanian coast of the Baltic substan-
tially the same tale is told with more humour. There a
farmer's boy sleeping in the living-room of ths house is
awakened by the proceedings of two laumes, or elves.
They stealthily fetch out of the bedroom the new-born
babe and swathe it in swaddling clothes of their own,
while they wrap in its clothes the oven-broom. Then
they began to quarrel which of them should carry the
broom thus rolled up into the bedroom ; and as they
were unable to agree they resolved to carry it together.
No sooner had they disappeared into the inner apart-
ment than the boy leaped out of bed, picked up his
mistress' child and took it into his own bed. When
the laumes returned the infant was not to be found.
They were both very angry and began to scold one
another : " It's your fault." u No, it's your fault ; didn't
I say, You carry it, while I stay here and keep watch ? I
said it would be stolen ! " While they wrangled thus,
kakary ku ! crew the cock, and, foiled and enraged, they
had to make off. The boy had great difficulty in waken-
ing his mistress, who was in a deep sleep, dreaming a
horrible dream that a stock of wood had been placed on
her breast so that she could hardly breathe. He told her
what had happened, but she would not believe it until

CHANGELINGS. 105

she saw that she had two children — one to which she had
given birth, the other fashioned out of the oven-broom.1

Prayer and the utterance of a holy name are to the full
as effectual as physical strength. A fisherwoman in the
north-east of Scotland was once left alone in bed with her
baby, when in came a little man dressed in green, and
proceeded to lay hold of the child. The woman knew at
once with Avhom she had to do, and ejaculated : " God
be atween you an' me ! " Out rushed the fairy in a
moment, and mother and babe were left without further
molestation. A curious tale is told of two Strathspey
smugglers who were one night laying in a stock of
whiskey at Glenlivat when they heard the child in the
cradle give a piercing cry, just as if it had been shot.
The mother, of course, blessed it ; and the Strathspey
lads took no further notice, and soon afterwards went
their way with their goods. Before they had gone far
they found a fine healthy child lying all alone on the
roadside, and recognized it as their friend's. They saw at
once how the affair stood. The fairies had taken away
the real infant and left a stock ; but owing to the pious
ejaculation of the mother, they had been forced to drop
it. As the urgency of their business did not admit of
their return they took the child with them, and kept it
until they went to Glenlivat again. On their arrival
here they said nothing about the child, which they kept
concealed. In the course of conversation the woman
remarked that the disease which had attacked the little
one the last time they were there had never left it, and
she had now scarce any hope of its recovery. As if to
confirm her statement, it continued uttering most piercing
cries. The smugglers thereupon produced the real babe
healthy and hearty, and told her how they had found it.
The mother was, of course, pleased to recover it ; and the
next thing was to dispose of the changeling. For this

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 175 ; vol. Hi. p. 43; Kuhn, p. 195 ; Schleicher,
p. 92.

106 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

purpose the Strathspey lads got an old creel to put him
in and some straw to light under it. Seeing the serious
turn matters were likely to take he resolved not to await
the trial, but flew up the smoke-hole and cried out from
the top that but for the guests events would have gone
very differently.1

Two pixies of Dartmoor, in the shape of large bundles
of rags, led away one of two children who were following
their mother homeward. It was eventually found, on
a search being made by the neighbours with lanterns,
under a certain large oak tree known to be pixy-haunted.
This is hardly a changeling story, as no attempt was
made to foist a false child on the parent. A tale from
the Isle of Man contains two similar incidents of attempted
robbery without replacing the stolen child by one of
superhuman birth. The fairies there adopted artifices
like those of the North German dwarfs above mentioned.
A few nights after a woman had been delivered of her
first child a cry of fire was raised, and every one ran out
of the house to see whence it proceeded, leaving the
helpless mother alone with her babe. On returning they
found the infant lying on the threshold of the house.
The following year, when another little stranger had
presented itself, a noise was heard in an out-house among
the cattle. Again everybody that was stirring, including
the nurse, hurried forth to learn what was the matter,
believing that the cattle had got loose. But finding all
safe, they came back, only to discover that the new-born
babe had been taken out of bed, as the former had been,
and on their coming dropped in the middle of the entry.
It might have been supposed that these two warnings
would have been enough ; but a third time the trick was
played, and then more successfully. Forgetting what
had previously happened, all who were in the house ran
out one night on hearing a noise in the cow-house — all,
that is, except the mother, who could not move, and the
1 Gregor, p. 61 ; Keightley, p. 393 ; Campbell, vol. ii. p. 64.

CHANGELINGS. 1 07

nurse, who was sleeping off the effects of alcohol. The
former was lying broad awake and saw her child lifted
from the bed by invisible hands and carried clean away.
She shrieked at once to the nurse, but failed to arouse
her ; and when her husband returned, an infant was
indeed lying beside her, but a poor, lean, withered,
deformed creature, very different from her own. It lay
quite naked, though the clothes of the true child had
been considerately left for it by the ravishers.1

One of the difficulties experienced by the fairies on two
of the three occasions here narrated in making off with
the little one occurred at the door of the house. That
they should have tried, repeatedly at all events, to pass
out that way is almost as remarkable as that they should
have been permitted more than once to attempt the
theft. For the threshold is a part of the dwelling which
from of old has been held sacred, and is generally avoided
by uncanny beings. Wiser, though still doomed to
failure, were those Irish elves who lifted up a window
and handed the infant out. For it happened that a
neighbour who was coming to pay a visit that moment
stopped before the house, and exclaimed : u God keep all
here from harm ! " No sooner had she uttered the
words than she saw the child put forth, how, or by
whom, she did not know ; and without hesitation she
Avent up and took it away home with her. The next
morning when she called to see how her friend fared
great was the moan made to her over the behaviour of
the child — so different from what it had ever been before
— crying all the night and keeping awake its mother, who
could not quiet it by any means. " I'll tell you what
you'll do with the brat," she replied ; " whip it well first?
and then bring it to the cross-roads, and leave the fairy
in the ditch there for any one to take that pleases ; for
I have your child at home safe and sound as he was

1 Hunt, p. 96 ; Walclron, p. 30. This account was given to the
author by the mother herself.

IdS THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

handed out of the window last night to me." When the
mother heard this, she just stepped out to get a rod ; but
before she returned the changeling had vanished, and no
one either saw or heard of it again.1

Fairies, however, when bent upon mischief, are not
always baulked so easily. They effect the exchange,
sometimes in the house, and sometimes when the parent
is at work in the fields and incautiously puts her offspring
down the while. In these circumstances, grievous as
may be the suspicion arising from the changed conduct
of the nursling, it is not always easy to be sure of what
has taken place. Tests, therefore, have to be applied.
Often the appearance is enough. A " mighty big head,"
or an abnormally thick head and neck, is in Germany
deemed sufficient credentials from Fairyland ; while in
a case from Lapland, where the hand and foot grew so
rapidly as to become speedily nearly half an ell in length
and the child was unable to learn to speak, whereas she
readily understood what was said to her, these deviation;
from the course of nature were looked upon as conclusive
evidence.2 A reputed changeling shown to Waldron in
the Isle of Man early in the last century i:s thus described :
" Nothing under heaven could have a more beautiful
face ; but though between five and six years old, and
seemingly healthy, he was so far from being able to
walk, or stand, that he could not so much as move any
one joint ; his limbs were vastly long for his age, but
smaller than an infant's of six months ; his complexion
was perfectly delicate, and he had the finest hair in the
world j^he never spoke, nor cried, eat scarce anything,
and was very seldom seen to smile, but if any one called
him a fairy-elf, he would frown and fix his eyes so

1 Croker, p. Si. See a similar tale in Campbell, vol. ii. p. 58.
Gregor, p. 61, mentions the dog-hole as the way by which children
are sometimes carried off.

2 Barlsch, vol. i. p. 46; Kuhn, p. 196; Grimm, " Teut. Myth."
p. 468 ; Poeslion, p. 114; Grohmann, p. 113.

CHANGELINGS. 109

earnestly on thosi who said it, as if he would look them
through. His mother, or at least his supposed mother,
being very poor, frequently went out a-charing, and left
him a whole day together. The neighbours, out of
curiosity, have often looked in at the window to see how
he behaved when alone, which, whenever they did, they
were sure to find him laughing and in the utmost delight.
This made them judge that he was not without company
more pleasing to him than any mortal's could be ; and
what made this conjecture seem the more reasonable was,
that if he were left ever so dirty, the woman at her return
saw him with a clean face, and his hair combed with the
utmost exactness and nicety." I Luther tells us that he
saw and touched at Dessau a changed child which was
twelve years of age. The account he gives of the child
is that " he had his eyes and all members like another
child ; he did nothing but feed, and would eat as much
as two clowns or threshers were able to eat. When one
touched it, then it cried out. When any evil happened
in the house, then it laughed and was joyful ; but when
all went well, then it cried and was very sad." So much
for the Reformer's testimony of what he saw and was
told. His theories and generalizations are in their way
not less interesting than his testimony : as might have
been expected, they are an adaptation of the ordinary
superstitions to his own grim scheme of things. u Such
changelings and killcrops," he goes on to say, " supponit
Satan in locum verorum filiorum ; for the devil hath
this power, that he changeth children, and instead
thereof layeth devils in the cradles, which thrive not,
only they feed and suck : but such changelings live not
above eighteen or nineteen years. It sometimes falleth
out that the children of women in child-bed are thus
changed, and Devils laid in their stead, one of which
more fouleth itself than ten other children do, so that

1 Waldron, p. 29. The same writer gives a similar account of the
changeling mentioned above, p. 107.

110 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the parents are much therewith disquieted ; and the
mothers in such sort are sucked out, that afterwards they
are able to give suck no more." I

Making allowance for the influence of imagination,
there can be no doubt, on comparison of these passages,
that the children to whom the character of changelings
was ascribed were invariably deformed or diseased. The
delightful author of the " Popular Romances of the
West of England " says that some thirty or forty years
before the date of writing he had seen several reputed
changelings. And his evidence is express that " in every
case they have been sad examples of the influence of
mesenteric disease." After describing their external
symptoms, he adds : " The wasted frame, with sometimes
strumous swellings, and the unnatural abdominal enlarge-
ment which accompanies disease of mesenteric glands,
gives a very sad, and often a most unnatural, appearance
to the sufferer." Professor Rhys' description of a re-
puted changeling, one Ellis Bach, of Nant Gwrtheyrn,
in Carnarvonshire, is instructive as showing the kind of
being accredited among the Welsh with fairy nature.
The professor is repeating the account given to him of
this poor creature, who died nearly half a century ago.
He tells vis : "His father was a farmer, whose children,
both boys and girls, were like ordinary folks, excepting
Ellis, who was deformed, his legs being so short that his
body seemed only a few inches from the ground when he
walked. His voice was also small and squeaky. How-
ever, he was very sharp, and could find his way among
the rocks pretty well when he went in quest of his father's
sheep and goats, of which there used to be plenty there
formerly. Everybody believed Ellis to have been a
changeling, and one saying of his is well known in
that part of the country. When strangers visited Nant
Gwrtheyrn, a thing which did not frequently happen,

1 "Colloquia Mensalia," quoted by Southey, "The Doctor" (London,
1848), p. 621. As to the attribute of greed, cf. Keightley, p. 125.

CHANGELINGS. Ill

and when his parents asked them to their table, and
pressed them to eat, he would squeak out drily : ' B^yta
}nynna Uytdr civbwlj that is to say — ' Eating — that
means eating all.' " A changeling in Monmouthshire,
described by an eye-witness at the beginning of the
present century, was simply an idiot of a forbidding
aspect, a dark, tawny complexion, and much addicted to
screaming.1

But a changeling was to be known in other ways than
by his physical defects ; under careful management he
might be led to betray himself in speech or action. A
Kirkcudbrightshire tale represents a child as once left in
charge of a tailor, who "commenced a discourse" with
him. "'Will, hae ye your pipes?' says the tailor.
'They're below my head,' says the tenant of the cradle.
' Play me a spring,' says the tailor. Like thought, the
little man, jumping from the cradle, played round the
room with great glee. A curious noise was heard mean-
time outside ; and the tailor asked what it meant. The
little elf called out : ' It's my folk wanting me,' and away
he fled up the chimney, leaving the tailor more dead
than alive." In the neighbouring county of Dumfries
the story is told with more gusto. The gudewife goes
to the hump-backed tailor, and says : " Wullie, I maun
awa' to Dunse about my wab, and I dinna ken what to
do wi' the bairn till I come back : ye ken it's but a
whingin', screechin', skirlin' wallidreg — but we maun

1 Hunt, p. 85 ; " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 175 ; Rev. Edmund Jones,
" A Relation of Apparitions," quoted by Wirt Sikes, p. 56. Thiele
relates a story in which a wild stallion colt is brought in to smell two
babes, one of which is a changeling. Every time he smells one he is
quiet and licks it ; but on smelling the other he is invariably restive
and strives to kick it. The latter, therefore, is the changeling. (Thorpe,
vol. ii. p. 177.) Sir John Maundeville also elates that in Sicily is a
kind of serpent whereby men assay the legitimacy of their children.
If the children be illegitimate the serpents bite and kill them ; if
otherwise they do them no harm — an easy and off-hand way of getting
rid of them ! ('• Early Trav." p. 155).

IT2 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

bear wi' dispensations. I wad wuss ye,' quoth she, ' to
tak tent till't till I come hame— ye sail hae a roosin'
ingle, and a blast o' the goodman's tobacco-pipe forbye.'
Wullie was naething laith, and back they gaed the-
gither. Wullie sits down at the fire, and awa' wi' her
yarn gaes the wife ; but scarce had she steekit the door,
and wan half-way down the close, when the bairn cocks
up on its doup in the cradle, and rounds in Wullie's lug :
' Wullie Tylor, an' ye winna tell my mither when she
comes back, I'se play ye a bonny spring on the bag-pipes.'
I wat Wullie's heart was like to loup the hool — for
tylors, ye ken, are aye timorsome — but he thinks to
himsel' : ' Fair fashions are still best,' an' ' It's better to
fleetch fules than to flyte wi' them ' ; so he rounds
again in the bairn's lug : ' Play up, my doo, an' I'se tell
naebody.' Wi' that the fairy ripes amang the cradle
strae, and pu's oot a pair o' pipes, sic as tylor Wullie
ne'er had seen in a' his days — muntit wi' ivory, and
gold, and silver, and dymonts, and what not. I dinna
ken what spring the fairy played, but this I ken weel,
that Wullie had nae great goo o' his performance ; so
he sits thinkin' to himsel' : ' This maun be a deil's get,
Auld Waughorn himsel' may come to rock his son's
cradle, and play me some foul prank ; ' so he catches
the bairn by the cuff o' the neck, and whupt him into
the fire, bagpipes and a' ! " z

In Nithsdale the elf-child displays a superhuman
power of work. The mother left it on one occasion in
the charge of a servant-girl, who sat bemoaning herself.
" Wer't nae for thy girning face I would knock the
big, winnow the corn, and grun the meal ! " " Lowse
the cradle band," cried the child, " and tent the
neighbours, an' I'll work yere wark." With that he
started up, the wind arose, the corn was winnowed, the
outlyers were foddered, the hand-mill moved around as
by instinct, and the knocking mell did its work with
1 Campbell, vol. ii. p. 58 ; Chambers, p. 70.

CHANGELINGS. 113

amazing rapidity. The lass arid the elf meanwhile
took their ease, until, on the mistress's return, he was
restored to the cradle and began to yell anew.1

Most of the stories of changelings, in fact, assume
that, though the outward characteristics might justify
vehement suspicion, yet they were not absolutely
decisive, and that to arrive at certainty the elf must
be brought to betray himself. No great subtlety, how-
ever, was needful ; for the stratagem employed varies
but little, as the following examples will show. The
child of a married couple in Mecklenburg at two years
of age was no longer than a shoe, but had a mighty big
head, and, withal, was unable to learn to speak. Its
parents were led by an old man to suspect that it had
been changed, and their adviser told them : " If you
wish to become certain, take an empty egg-shell, and in
the child's presence pour in new beer and cause it to
ferment by means of yeast. If then the child speak, my
conjecture is right." His counsel was followed, and
scarcely had the beer fermented when the child cried
out from the cradle :

" I am as old
As Bohemian gold,
Yet for the first time now I see
Beer in an egg-shell brew'd to be."

The parents determined to fling the babe into the river
the following night ; but when at midnight they rose for
the purpose they found in the cradle a strong, blooming
child. In a Welsh tale from Radnorshire the egg-shell
is boiled full of pottage in the children's sight (there are
twins in this case) and taken out as a dinner for the
reapers who happened to be cutting the rye and oats.
In Glamorganshire the woman declares she is mixing a
pasty for the reapers. An Icelandic legend makes a
woman set a pot containing food to cook on the fire
f Cromek, p. 246.

9

114 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and fasten twigs end to end in continuation of the
handle of a spoon until the topmost one appears above
the chimney, when she puts the bowl in the pot.
Another woman in a Danish tale engaged to drive a
changeling out of the house he troubled ; and this is
how she set about it. In his temporary absence she
killed a pig and made a black pudding of it, hide, hair
and all. On his return she set it before him, for he was
a prodigious eater. He began gobbling it up as usual ;
but as he ate his efforts gradually slackened, and at last
he sat quite still, eyeing it thoughtfully. Then he ex-
claimed : <( A pudding with hide ! and a pudding with
hair ! a pudding with eyes ! and a pudding with bones
in it ! Thrice have I seen a young wood spring upon
Tiis Lake, but never yet did I see such a pudding ! The
devil will stay here no longer ! " And so saying he ran
off and never returned.1

Of these devices, however, the normal one is that of
the egg-shells. Sometimes one egg-shell only is employed,
sometimes two — a dozen — or an indefinite number. At
seaside places, like Normandy and the Channel Islands,
egg-shells are sometimes replaced by shells of shell-fish.2
In all the stories the end is the same, namely, to excite
the curiosity and wonder of the imp to such a pitch that
he gives expression to it in language akin to that of the
North German or the Danish tale just quoted. The
measure of age given in his exclamation is usually that
of the trees in the forest, or indeed the forest itself. In
the instance from Mecklenburg, Bohemian gold (Bohmcr
Gold] is made the measure, and this runs through quite
a number of Low Dutch stories. There can be little

1 Bartsch, vol. i. p. 42 ; Sikes, p. 59, quoting from the " Cambrian
Quarterly," vol. ii. p. 86; "Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 209; Arna-
son's " Icelandic Legends," cited in Kennedy, p. 89 ; Thorpe, vol.
ii. p. 174, quoting Thiele, " Danmark's Folkesagn samlede." See
also Keightley, p. 125.

2 Fleury, p. 60; " Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. Hi. p. 162.

CHANGELINGS. 115

doubt, however, that it is a corruption, and that the true
form is, as given in a Schleswig-Holstein tale, Bohemian
Forest (Behmer Woclt}.1 In Hesse Wester Forest
(Westcrwald) is found, and so on in other countries,
the narrator in each case referring to some wood well
known to his audience. The Lithuanian elf, or laumes,
says : "I am so old, I was already in the world before
the Kamschtschen Wood was planted, wherein great
trees grew, and that is now laid waste again ; but any-
thing so wonderful I have never seen." In Normandy
the changeling declares : u I have seen the Forest of
Ardennes burnt seven times, but I never saw so many
pots boil." The astonishment of a Scandinavian imp
expressed itself even more graphically, for when he saw
an egg-shell boiling on the fire having one end of a
measuring rod set in it, he crept out of the cradle on
his hands, leaving his feet still inside, and stretched
himself out longer and longer until he reached right
across the floor and up the chimney, when he exclaimed :
*' Well ! seven times have I seen the wood fall in Lesso
Forest, but never till now have I seen so big a ladle in
so small a pot ! " And the Danish story I have cited
above represents the child as saying that he has seen a
young wood thrice upon Tiis Lake.2 The Welsh fairies
are curiously youthful compared with these hoary infants,
which is all the more remarkable when the daring
exaggerations of Cambrian story-tellers are considered.
It is a modest claim only to have seen the acorn before

1 Cf. Bohmcn-Gold, Bartsch, vol. i. p. 22 ; Bohmegold, ibid. p. 47;
Boluner Gold, ibid. pp. 65, 79, and presumably p. 89 ; Bohma gold, Kuhn
und Schwartz, p. 30; Boehman gold, ibid. p. 31 ; bom un gold (timber
and gold), ibid. p. 105 ; Boem un holt (timber and wood), Jahn, p. 90 ;
Bern/wit in Jen Wait (firewood in the forest), and Brewer Wold,
Miillenhoff, cited Grimm, " Tales," vol. i. p. 388. These variations
while preserving a similar sound are suspicious.

2 Grimm, " Tales," vol. i. pp. 163, 388 ; Schleicher, p. 91 ; Fleury,
p. 60 ; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 176 ; quoting Asbjornsen, " Huldreeventyr,"
vol. ii. p. 165. Cf. Sebillot, " Contes Pop." vol. ii. p. 78.

Il6 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the oak and the egg before the hen, yet that is all that
is put forward. In one of the Lays of Marie de France
the wood of Brezal is indicated as the spot where the
oak was seen.1 The formula thus variously used would
appear to be a common one to describe great antiquity,
and in all probability itself dates back to a very remote
period.

But changelings frequently conform to the more
civilized usage of measuring 'their age by years. And
various are the estimates given us, from fifteen hundred
years in the Emerald Isle down to the computation,
erring perhaps on the other side, of the young gentle-
man in the English tale, who remarks : u Seven years
old was I before I came to the nurse, and four years have
I lived since, and never saw so many milk-pans before."
A yet more mysterious hint as to her earlier life is
dropped by an imp in Brittany. She has been treated
to the sight of milk boiling in egg-shells, and cries :
" I shall soon be a hundred years old, but I never saw so
many shells boiling ! I was born in Pif and in Paf, in
the country where cats are made ; but I never saw any-
thing like it ! " 2 To all right-minded persons this dis-
closure contained sufficient warrant for her reputed
mother to repudiate her as a witch, though cats are no
less intimate with fairies than with conjurers.

Simrock, in his work on German mythology already
cited, inclines to the opinion that the object of the
ceremony which the suspected child is made to witness
is to produce laughter. He says : " The dwarf is no
over-ripe beauty who must keep her age secret. Rather
something ridiculous must be done to cause him to
. x Sikes, pp. 58, 59; Howells, p. 138; "Y Cymmrodor," vol. iv.
p. 208, vol. vi. pp. 172, 204 ; Keightley, p. 436.

; 2 Croker, p. 65 ; "A Pleasant Treatise of Witches," p. 62, quoted
in Hazlitt, " Fairy Tales," p. 372 ; Sebillot, " Contes," vol. ii. p. 76 ;
Carnoy, p. 4 ; Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 157 ; Campbell, vol. ii. p. 47 ;
" Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iii. p. 162. Cf. a Basque tale given by
ter, where the Devil is tricked into telling his age (Webster, p. 58),

CHANGELINGS. HJ

laugh, because laughter brings deliverance." r The
problem set before the heroes of many folk-tales is to
compel laughter, but that does not seem to be intended
in these changeling stories. At least I have only met
with it in one, and it certainly is not common. The
confession of age which the ceremony draws forth is
really much more. It is a confession that the apparently
human babe is an imposture, that it belongs in fact to a
different race, and has no claim on the mother's care and
tenderness. Therefore it is not always enough for the
fraud to be discovered : active means must sometimes be
taken to rid the family of their supernatural burden and
regain their own little one. In Grimm's story, in which
the child laughs, a host of elves comes suddenly bringing
back the true and carrying away the false one ; and in
many of the German and Northern tales the changeling
disappears in one way or other immediately after its
exclamation. We are sometimes even told in so many
words that the changeling had betrayed himself, and the
underground folk were obliged to give back the stolen
child. And in the Lithuanian story we have cited the
laumes straightway falls sick and dies.2 Such conduct
accords entirely with the resentment at being recognized
which we have in a previous chapter found to be a
characteristic of spiritual existences. It is much more
like the dislike of being found out attributed to beings
who are in the habit of wralking invisible, than any
mystical effect of laughter.

If this be so, still less do the stories where it is required
actually to drive the imp away support the learned
German's contention. The means taken in these stories
are very various. Sometimes it is enough to let the
child severely alone, as once in the Isle of Man where a
woman laid her child down in the field while she was
cutting corn, and a fairy changed it there and then.

1 Simrock, p. 419.

2 Jahn, p. 89 ; Schleicher, p. 91.

Il8 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

The changeling began to scream, but the mother was
prevented by a man who had been a witness to the
transaction from picking it up ; and when the fairy
found that no notice was taken the true child was brought
back. In the island of Lewis the custom was to dig a
grave in the fields on Quarter Day and lay the goblin in
it until the next morning, by which time it was believed
the human babe would be returned. In the north of
Germany one is advised not to touch the changeling
with the hands, but to overturn the cradle so that the
child falls on the floor. The elf must then be swept out
of the door with an old broom, when the dwarfs will
come and bring back the stolen child. Putting it on
the dunghill and leaving it there to cry has been
practised successfully in England ; but in Ireland this is
only one part of a long and serious ceremony directed by
a wizard or "fairy-man." In dealing with these stories
we must always remember that not merely are we con-
cerned with sagas of something long past, but with a yet
living superstition, and that the practices I am about to
mention — even the most cruel and the most ridiculous
of them — so far respond to the actual beliefs of the
people that instances of their occurrence are quite recent
and well authenticated, as we shall presently see. An
anonymous but well-informed writer describes, as if it
were by no means an unusual ceremony, that just referred
to ; and Kennedy gives the same in the shape of a legend.
It seems to consist in taking a clean shovel and seating
the changeling on its broad iron blade, and thus conveying
the creature to the manure heap. The assistants would
then join hands and circle about the heap thrice while
the fairy-man chanted an incantation in the Irish language.
At its conclusion all present would withdraw into the
house, leaving the child where it had been placed, to
howl and cry as it pleased. Says Mr. Kennedy : u They
soon felt the air around them sweep this way and that,
as if it was stirred by the motion of wings, but they

CHANGELINGS. . IIQ

remained quiet and silent for about ten minutes.
Opening the door, they then looked out, and saw the
bundle of straw on the heap, but neither child nor fairy.
' Go into your bed-room, Katty,' said the fairy-man,
' and see if there's anything left on the bed ! ' She did
so, and they soon heard a cry of joy, and Katty was
among them in a moment, kissing and hugging her own
healthy-looking child, who was waking and rubbing his
eyes, and wondering at the lights and all the eager
faces." *

Whether it was the noise made by the child or the
incantation that drew the u good people's " attention, we
are left in doubt by this story. A Norman woman was,
however, advised to make her child cry lustily " in order
to bring its real mother to it." And this is probably the
meaning of the many tales in which the elf is beaten, or
starved and subjected to other ill-usage, or is threatened
with death.2 In the Pflockenstein Lake in Bohemia wild
women are believed to dwell, who, among other attri-
butes common to elves or fairies, are believed to change
infants. In order to compel a re-exchange, directions are
given to bind with a weed growing at the bottom of the
lake and to beat Avith a rod of the same, calling out
therewithal : " Take thine own and bring me mine." A
mother in a Little Russian tale had a baby of extraordinary
habits. When alone, he jumped out of the cradle, no

1 " Choice Notes," p. 27 ; (this seems to have been a common
prescription in Wales: see "Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. pp. 175,
178 ; and in the Western Highlands : see Campbell, vol. ii. p. 64.)
Brand, vol. ii. p. 335, note; (this seems also to be the case in some
parts of Ireland, Lady Wilde, vol. i. p. 70.) Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 157;
Kennedy, p. 94 ; " Irish Folk Lore," p. 45.

~ Beaten — Lay of Marie de France, quoted Keightley, p. 436 ;
Costello, " Pilgrimage to Auvergne," vol. ii. p. 294, quoted Keightley,
p. 471 ; Fleury, p. 62, citing Bosquet, " Normandie Romanesque";
Howells, p. 139; Aubrey, "Remains," p. 30; Jahn, pp. 98, 101 ;
Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 29 ; Croker, p. 81. Starved, beaten^ &°c. —
Croker, p. 77. Threatened to le killed — Sebillot, "Trad, et Super."
vol. i. p. 118 ; " Contes," vol. i. p. 28, vol. ii. p. 76 ; Carnoy, p. 4.

ISO THE SCIENCE OP FAIRY TALES.

longer a baby but a bearded old man, gobbled up the food
out of the stove, and then lay down again a screeching
babe. A wise woman who was consulted placed him on
a block of wood and began to chop the block under his
feet. He screeched and she chopped ; he screeched and
she chopped ; until he became an old man again and
made the enigmatical confession : " I have transformed
myself not once nor twice only. I was first a fish, then I
became a bird, an ant, and a quadruped, and now I have
once more made trial of being a human being. It isn't
better thus than being among the ants ; but among
human beings — it isn't worse ! " Here the chopping was
evidently a threat to kill. Nor, if we may trust the
stories, was this threat always an empty one. The
changeling fashioned out of a broom in the Lithuanian
story already cited, was disposed of, by the parish priest's
advice, by hewing its head off. The reason given by the
holy man was that it was not yet four and twenty hours
old, and it would not be really alive until the expiration
of that time. Accordingly when the neck was severed
nothing but a wisp of straw was found inside, though
blood flowed as if there were veins.1

But even more truculent methods are represented by
the story-tellers as resorted to to free the afflicted house-
hold. Nothing short of fire is often deemed sufficient for
the purpose. There were various methods of applying it.
Sometimes we are told of a shovel being made red-hot
and held before the child's face ; sometimes he is seated
on it and flung out into the dung-pit, or into the oven ;
or again, the poker would be heated to mark the sign of
the cross on his forehead, or the tongs to take him by the
nose. Or he is thrown bodily on the fire, or suspended
over it in a creel or a pot ; and in the north of Scotland
the latter must be hung from a piece of the branch of a
hazel tree. In this case we are told that if the child
screamed it was a changeling, and it was held fast to pre-

1 Grohmann, p. 135 ; Wratislaw, p. 161 ; Schleicher, p. 92.

CHANGELINGS. 121

Vent its escape. Generally, however, it is related that the
elf flies up the chimney, and when safely at the top he stops
to make uncomplimentary remarks upon his persecutors.
In the Nithsdale story which I have already cited, the
servant girl at midnight covers up the chimney and every
other inlet, makes the embers glowing hot, and undress-
ing the changeling tosses it on them. In answer to its
yells the fairies are heard moaning and rattling at the
window boards, the chimney-head, and the door. " In
the name o' God, bring back the bairn," she exclaims. In
a moment up flew the window, the human child was laid
unharmed on the mother's lap, while its guilty substitute
flew up the chimney with a loud laugh.1

Frightful as this cruelty would seem to every one if
perpetrated on the mother's own offspring, it was regarded
with equanimity as applied to a goblin ; and it is not more
frightful than what has been actually perpetrated on
young children, and that within a very few years, under
the belief that they were beings of a different race.
Instances need not be multiplied ; it will be enough to
show that one of the horrible methods of disposing of
changelings referred to in the last paragraph came under
judicial notice no longer ago than the month of May 1884.
Two women were reported in the " Daily Telegraph " as
having been arrested at Clonmel on the 1 7th of that
month, charged with cruelly ill-treating a child three
years old. The evidence given was to the effect- that the
neighbours fancied that the child, who had not the use
of his limbs, was a changeling. During the mother's
absence the prisoners accordingly entered her house and
placed the child naked on a hot shovel, " under the im-
pression that this would break the charm." As might

' " Y Brython," vol. ii. p. 20 ; Kennedy, p. 90; Thorpe, vol. ii. p.
174; Napier, p. 40 ; Lady Wilde, vol. i. pp. 72, 171 ; Keightley, p.
393 ; " Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iii. p. 162 ; Campbell, vol. ii. pp.
47, 61 ; Croker, p. 65 ; Chambers, p. 70 ? " F. L. Journal," vol. i. p.
56 ; Gregor, pp. 8, 9 ; Cromek, p. 246.

122 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

have been expected the poor little thing was severely
burnt, and, when the women were apprehended, it was
in a precarious condition. The prisoners, on being
remanded, were hooted by an indignant crowd. It might
be thought that this was an indication of the decay of
superstition, even in Ireland, however much to be con-
demned as an outburst of feeling against unconvicted and
even untried persons. But we must regard it rather as a
protest against the prisoners' inhumanity than against
their superstition : in either case, of course, the product
of advancing civilization. For if we may trust the
witness of other sagas we find the trial by fire commuted
to a symbolic act, as though men had begun to be
revolted by the cruelty, even when committed only on a
fairy who had been found out, but were unwilling to
abandon their belief in the power of the exorcism. In
the north-east of Scotland, for example, where a beggar,
who had diagnosed a changeling, was allowed to try his
hand at disposing of it, he made a large fire on the hearth
and held a black hen over it till she struggled, and finally
escaped from his grasp, flying out by the " lum." More
minute directions are given by the cunning man in a
Glamorganshire tale. After poring over his big book, he
told his distracted client to find a black hen without a
single feather of any other colour. This she was to bake
(not living, but dead, as appears by the sequel) before a
fire of wood (not, as usual, of peat), with feathers and all
intact. Every window and opening was to be closed,
except one — presumably the chimney ; and she was not
to watch the crirnbil, or changeling, until the hen had
been done enough, which she would know by the falling
off of all her feathers. The more knowing woman, in an
Irish story, attributes the fact of the infant's being changed
to the Evil Eye ; and her directions for treatment require
the mother to watch for the woman who has given it the
Evil Eye, inveigle her into the house and cut a piece
secretly out of her cloak. This piece of the cloak was

CHANGELINGS. 123

then to be burnt close to the child until the smoke made
him sneeze, when the spell would be broken and her own
child restored. The writer who records this tale mentions
the following mode of proceeding as a common one,
namely : to place the babe in the middle of the cabin
and light a fire round it, fully expecting it to be changed
into a sod of turf, but manifestly not intending to do
bodily harm to it independently of any such change. In
Carnarvonshire a clergyman is credited with telling a
mother to cover a shovel with salt, mark a cross in the
salt, and burn it in the chamber where the child was,
judiciously opening the window first.1 It is satisfactory
to know that, so far as the recorded cases go, the ceremony
lost nothing of its power by being thus toned down.

Fire, however, was not the only element efficacious for
turning to flight these troublesome aliens. Water's
antagonism to witches is notorious ; and ample use was
made of it in the old witch trials. It is equally obnoxious
to fairies and their congeners. In a Welsh story from
Radnorshire, when the mother has been by the egg-shell
device convinced of the exchange of her own twin chil-
dren, she takes the goblin twins and flings them into
Llyn Ebyr ; but their true kinsmen clad in blue trousers
(their usual garb) save them, and the mother receives her
own again. In other tales she drops the twins into the
river ; but in one case the witch who has been credited
with the change bathes the child at a mountain spout, or
pistyll, and exacts a promise from the mother to duck him
in cold water every morning for three months. It is not
very surprising to learn that " at the end of that time
there was no finer infant in the Cwm." 2

1 " Daily Telegraph," 19 May 1884 ; Gregor, p. 6l ; Lady Wilde,
vol. i. pp. 38, 173 ; " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 209, vol. v. p. 72.

2 "Cambrian Quarterly," vol. ii. p. 86, quoted, Sikes, p. 595 "Y
Cymmrodor," vol. iv. p. 208, vol. vi. pp. 172, 203. Mr. Sikes refers
to a case in which the child was bathed in a solution of foxglove as
having actually occurred in Carnarvonshire in 1857, but he gives no
authority.

124 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

There is an oft-quoted passage in Luther's " Table
Talk," in which he relates that he told the Prince of
Anhalt that if he were prince he would venture Jmtm-
cidium upon a certain changeling with which he had
been brought into contact, and throw it into the river
Moldaw. The great Reformer was only on a level with
his countrymen in their superstitions in reference to
changelings, or Killcrops, as they were then called. I
have already quoted his opinion of them as devils ; and
the test of their true nature, which he seems to have
thought infallible, was their inordinate appetite ; nor did
he attach any value to baptism as a means of exorcism.
One excellent tale he tells on the subject concerns a
peasant who lived near Halberstadt, in Saxony. This
good man, in accordance with advice, was taking the
child to Halberstadt to be rocked at the shrine of the
Virgin Mary, when in crossing a river another devil that
was below in the river called out " Killcrop ! Killcrop ! "
Then, says Luther, the child in the basket, that had never
before spoken one word, answered " Ho, ho ! " The
devil in the water asked, "Whither art thou going?"
and the child replied, " I am going to Halberstadt to our
Loving Mother, to be rocked." In his fright the man
threw the basket containing the child over the bridge
into the water, whereupon the two devils flew away
together and cried " Ho, ho, ha ! " tumbling themselves
one over another, and so vanished.1 This may be taken
as a type of many a story current in North Germany and
the neighbouring Slavonic lands. It is not, however,
unknown in this country. Mr. Hunt has versified a
Cornish tale in which the mother took her brat to the
chapel well to plunge it at dawn and pass it round slowly

1 Quoted in Southey, loc. cit. Miillenhoff relates a similar tale, see
Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 46; also Grohmann, p. 126 ; Kuhn und Schwartz,
p. 30. Bowker, p. 73, relates a story embodying a similar episode,
but apparently connected with Wild Hunt legends. See his note, ibid,
p. 251.

CHANGELINGS. 125

three times against the sun, as she had been advised to
do on the first three Wednesdays in the month of May.
Reaching the top of the hill on one of these occasions, she
heard a shrill voice in her ear : " Tredrill, Tredrill ! thy
wife and children greet thee well." The little one of
course replied, much to her astonishment, repudiating all
concern for his wife and children, and intimating his
enjoyment of the life he was leading, and the spell that
was being wrought in his behalf. In the end she got rid
of him by the homely process of beating and leaving him
on the ground near the old church stile. A Sutherland-
shire tradition tells of a child less than a year old who
suddenly addressed his mother in verse as he was being
carried through a wild glen. Translated, the youth's
impromptu lines run thus : —

" Many is the dun hummel cow
(Each having a calf)
In the opposite dun glen,
Without the aid of dog,
Or man, or woman, or gillie,
One man excepted,
And he grey "

At that moment his remarks were interrupted by the
terrified woman throwing him down in the plaid which
wrapt him, and scampering home, where to her joy she
found her true babe smiling in the cradle.1

These verses carry us back to the egg-shell episode, from
which the consideration of the means adopted to drive
away the intrusive goblin has diverted us. They contain
a vague assertion of age like those then before us, but
not a hint of laughter. Nor have we found anything
throughout the whole discussion to favour Simrock's
suggestion, or to shake the opinion that the dissolution
of the fairy spell was derived either from the vexation of
the supernatural folk at their own self-betrayal, or from

1 Hunt, p. 91 ; " F. L. Journal," vol. vi. p. 182.

126 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the disclosure to the human foster-parents of the true
state of the facts, and their consequent determination to
exorcise the demon.

It is true we have a few more stories to examine, but we
shall find that they all confirm this conclusion. The
cases we have yet to deal with, except the first, exhibit
a different and much more humane treatment of the
changeling than the foregoing. The case excepted is
found in Carnarvonshire, where one infallible method of
getting rid of the child was to place it on the floor and
let all present in the house throw a piece of iron at it.
The old woman who mentioned this to Professor Rhys
conjectured that the object was to convince the Tylwyth
Teg, or fairy people, of the intention to kill the babe, in
order to induce them to bring the right child back.1
This would be the same motive as that which threatened
death by fire or other ill-usage, in some of the instances
mentioned above. But we could not thus account for the
requirement that iron, and only iron, was to be used ; and
here we have, in fact, a superstition carefully preserved,
while its meaning has quite passed out of memory. In a
future chapter we shall examine the attitude of mythical
beings in folk-lore to metals, and especially to iron ; in
the meantime AVC may content ourselves with noting this
addition to the examples we have already met with of
the horror with which they regarded it.

So far from its being always deemed wise to neglect
or injure the changeling, it was not infrequently sup-
posed to be necessary to take the greatest care of it,
thereby and by other means to propitiate its elvish tribe.
This was the course pursued with the best results by a
Devonshire mother ; and a woman at Straussberg, in
North Germany, was counselled by all her gossips to
act lovingly, and above all not to beat the imp, lest her
own little one be beaten in turn by the underground
folk. So in a Hessian tale mentioned by Grimm, a
1 " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. p. 181.

CHANGELINGS. 127

wtchtcl-ivife caught almost in the act of kidnapping
refused to give up the babe until the woman had placed
the changed one to her breast, and u nourished it for
once with the generous milk of human kind." In
Ireland, even when the child is placed on a dunghill,
the charm recited under the direction of the "fairy-
man " promises kindly entertainment in future for the
u gambolling crew," if they will only undo what they
have done. A method in favour in the north of Scot-
land is to take the suspected elf to some known haunt
of its race, generally, we are told, some spot where
peculiar soughing sounds are heard, or to some barrow,
or stone circle, and lay it down, repeating certain in-
cantations the while. What the words of these incan-
tations are we are not informed, but we learn that an
offering of bread, butter, milk, cheese, eggs, and flesh
of fowl must accompany the child. The parents then
retire for an hour or two, or until after midnight ; and
if on returning these things have disappeared, they con-
clude that the offering is accepted and their own child
returned.1

Neither ill-usage nor kindness, neither neglect nor pro-
pitiation, was sometimes prescribed and acted upon, but
— harder than either — a journey to Fairyland to fetch
back the captive. A man on the island of Riigen, whose
carelessness had occasioned the loss of his child, watched
until the underground dwellers sallied forth on another
raid, when he hastened to the mouth of the hole that
led into their realm, and went boldly down. There
in the Underworld he found the child, and thus the
robbers were forced to take their own again instead.
In a more detailed narrative from Islay, the father arms
himself with a Bible, a dirk, and a crowing cock, and
having found the hill where the " Good People " had
their abode open, and filled with the lights and sounds

1 Mrs. Bray, vol. i. p. 167 ; Kuhn, p. 196; Grimm, " Teut. Myth."
p. 468, note ; " Irish F. L." p. 45 ; Napier, p. 42,

128 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of festival, he approached and stuck the dirk into the
threshold. The object of this was to prevent the
entrance from closing upon him. Then he steadily ad-
vanced, protected from harm by the Bible at his breast.
Within, his boy (who was thirteen or fourteen years of
age) was working at the forge ; but when the man
demanded him the elves burst into a loud laugh, which
aroused the cock in his arms. The cock at once leaped
upon his shoulders, flapped his wings, and crowed loud
and long. The enraged elves thereupon cast the man
and his son both out of the hill, and flung the dirk after
them ; and in an instant all was dark. It should be
added that for a year and a day afterwards the boy did
no work, and scarcely spoke ; but he ultimately became
a very famous smith, the inventor of a specially fine and
well-tempered sword. The changeling himself in one of
Lady Wilde's tales directs his foster-mother to Fairyland.
The Avay thither was down a well ; and she was led by
the portress, an old woman, into the royal palace. There
the queen admits that she stole the .child, u for he was
so beautiful," and put her own instead. The re-exchange
is effected, and the good woman is feasted with food which
the fairies cannot touch, because it has been sprinkled
with salt. When she found herself again at home, she
fancied she had only been away an hour : it was three
years.1

But it was not always necessary to incur the risk of
going as far as the other world. The Glamorganshire
woman, whose successful cooking of a black hen has
been already referred to, had first to go at full moon to a
place where four roads met, and hide herself to watch the
fairy procession which passed at midnight. There in the
midst of the music and the Bendith en mammati she
beheld her own dear little child. One of the most
interesting changeling stories was gravely related in the
"Irish Fireside " for the 7th of January 1884, concerning
1 Jahn, p. 52 ; Campbell, vol. ii. p. 47 ; Lady Wilde, vol. i. p. 119.

CHANGELINGS. 129

a land-leaguer who had been imprisoned as a suspect
under the then latest Coercion Act. When this patriot
was a boy he had been stolen by the fairies, one of them-
selves having been left in his place. The parish priest,
however, interfered ; and by a miracle he caused the elf
for a moment to disappear, and the boy to return to tell
him the conditions on which his captivity might be
ended. The information given, the goblin again re-
placed the true son ; but the good priest was now able
to deal effectually with the matter. The imp was
accordingly dipped thrice in Lough Lane (a small lake in
the eastern part of Westmeath), when " a curl came on
the water, and up from the deep came the naked form
of the boy, who walked on the water to meet his father
on shore. The father wrapped his overcoat about his
son, and commenced his homeward march, accompanied
by a line of soldiers, who also came out of the lake.
The boy's mother was enjoined not to speak until the
rescuing party would reach home. She accidentally
spoke ; and immediately the son dropped a tear, and
forced himself out of his father's arms, piteously ex-
claiming : ' Father, father, my mother spoke ! You
cannot keep me. I must go.' He disappeared, and,
reaching home, the father found the sprite again on the
hearth." The ghostly father's services were called into
requisition a second time ; .and better luck awaited an
effort under his direction after the performance of a
second miracle like the first. For this time the mother
succeeded in holding her tongue, notwithstanding that
at every stream on the way home from the lake the car
on which the boy was carried was upset, and he himself
fainted.1 This is declared to have happened no longer
ago than the year 1869. The writer, apparently a pious
Roman Catholic, who vouches for the fact, probably never
heard the touching tale of Orpheus and Eurydice.

The foregoing story, as well as some of those previously
1 " F. L. Journal," vol. ii. p. 91, quoting the " Irish Fireside."
10

130 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

mentioned, shows that fairy depredations were by no
means confined to babes and young children. Indeed
adults were often carried off ; and, although this chapter
is already far too long, I cannot close it without briefly
examining a few such cases. Putting aside those, then,
in which boys or young men have been taken, as already
sufficiently discussed, all the other cases of robbery, as
distinguished from seduction or illusion, are concerned
with matrons. The elfin race Avere supposed to be on
the watch for unchurched or unsained mothers to have
the benefit of their milk. In one instance the captive was
reputed to have freed herself by promising in exchange
her husband's best mare under milk, which was retained
by the captors until it was exhausted and* almost dead.
More usually the story relates that a piece of wood is
carved in the likeness of the lady and laid in her place,
the husband and friends being deceived into believing
it to be herself. A man returning home at night over-
hears the supernatural beings at work. He listens and
catches the words : " Mak' it red cheekit an' red lippit
like the smith o' Bonnykelly's wife." Mastering the
situation he runs off to the smith's house, and sains the
new mother and her babe. And he is only just in time,
for hardly has he finished than a great thud is heard
outside. On going out a piece of bog-fir is found, — the
image the fairies intended to substitute for the smith's
wife. In North German and Danish tales it is the
husband who overhears the conspirators at work, and he
often has coolness enough to watch their proceedings
on his return home and, bouncing out upon them,
to catch them just as they are about to complete their
crime. Thus, one clever fellow succeeded in retaining
both his wife and the image already put into her bed,
which he thrust into the oven to blaze and crackle in the
sight and hearing of his wife's assembled friends, who
supposed he was burning her until he produced her to
their astonished gaze. A tale from Badenoch represents

CHANGELINGS. 131

the man as discovering the fraud from finding his wife,
a woman of xmruffled temper, suddenly turned a shrew.
So he piles up a great fire and threatens to throw the
occupant of the bed upon it unless she tells him what
has become of his own wife. She then confesses that the
latter has been carried off, and she has been appointed
successor ; but- by his determination he happily succeeds
in recapturing his own at a certain fairy knoll near
Inverness.1

It happens occasionally that these victims of elfin
gallantry are rescued by other men than their husbands.
A smith at work one day hears a great moaning and
sobbing out of doors. Looking out he sees a troll
driving a pregnant woman before him, and crying to her
continually : " A little further yet ! a little further yet ! "
He instantly springs forward with a red-hot iron in his
hand, which he holds between the troll and his thrall,
so that the former has to abandon her and take to flight.
The smith then took the woman under his protection,
and the same night she was delivered of twins. Going
to the husband to console him for his loss, he is sur-
prised to find a woman exactly resembling his friend's
wife in her bed. He saw how the matter stood, and
seizing an axe he killed the witch on the spot, and
restored to the husband his real wife and new-born
children. This is a Danish legend ; but there is a High-
land one very similar to it. A man meets one night a
troop of fairies with a prize of some sort. Recollecting
that fairies are obliged to exchange whatever they may
have with any one who offers them anything, no matter
what its value, for it, he flings his bonnet to them, calling
out : " Mine is yours, and yours is mine ! " The prize
which they dropped turned out to be an English lady
whom they had carried off, leaving in her place a stock,
which, of course, died and was buried. The Sassenach

1 Gregor, p. 62; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 139, quoting Thiele ; vol. iii.
p. 41, quoting Miillenhoff ; Campbell, vol. ii. p. 67 ; Cromek, p. 244.

132 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

woman lived for some years in the Highlander's house,
until the captain in command of an English regiment
came to lodge in his house with his son, while the
soldiers were making new roads through the country.
There the son recognized his mother, and the father his
wife long mourned as dead.1

The death and burial of changelings, though, as here,
occurring in the tales, are not often alluded to ; and there
are grounds for thinking them a special deduction of
the Scottish mind. Sometimes the incident is ghastly
enough to satisfy the devoted lover of horrors. The
west of Scotland furnishes an instance in which the
exchange was not discovered until after the child's
apparent death. It was buried in due course ; but sus-
picion having been aroused, the grave and coffin were
opened, and not a corpse but only a wooden figure was
found within. A farmer at Kintraw, in Argyllshire,
lost his wife. On the Sunday after the funeral, when he
and his servants returned from church, the children,
who had been left at home, reported that their mother
had been to see them, and had combed and dressed them.
The following Sunday they made the same statement,
in spite of the punishment their father had thought
proper to inflict for telling a lie on the first occasion.
The next time she came the eldest child asked her why
she came, when she said that she had been carried off
by "the good people," and could only get away for an
hour or two on Sundays, and should her coffin be opened
it would be found to contain nothing but a withered
leaf. The minister, however, who ridiculed the story,
refused to allow the coffin to be opened ; and when,
some little time after, he was found dead near the Fairieo'
Hill, above Kintraw, he was held by many to be a victim
to the indignation of the fairy world he had laughed
at. Sir Walter Scott mentions the tale of a farmer's

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 133, quoting Thiele; Keightley, p. 391, quoting
Stewart, " The Popular Superstitions of the Highlanders."

CHANGELINGS. 133

wife in Lothian, who, after being carried off by the fairies,
reappeared repeatedly on Sunday to her children, and
combed their hair. On one of these occasions the
husband met her, and Avas told that there was one way
to recover her, namely, by lying in wait on Hallowe'en
for the procession of fairies, and stepping boldly out, and
seizing her as she passed among them. At the moment
of execution, however, his heart failed, and he lost his
wife for ever. In connection with this, Scott refers to a
real event which happened at the town of North Berwick.
A widower, who was paying addresses with a view to
second marriage, was troubled by dreams of his former
wife, to whom he had been tenderly attached. One
morning he declared to the minister that she had
appeared to him the previous night, stating that she was
a captive in Fairyland, and begged him to attempt her
deliverance. The mode she prescribed was to bring the
minister and certain others to her grave at midnight to
dig up her body, and recite certain prayers, after which
the corpse would become animated and flee from him.
It was to be pursued by the swiftest runner in the parish,
and if he could catch it before it had encircled the
church thrice, the rest were to come to his help and hold
it notwithstanding its struggles, and the shapes into
which it might be transformed. In this way she would
be redeemed. The minister, however, declined to take
part in so absurd and indecent a proceeding.1

Absurd and indecent it would undoubtedly have been
to unearth a dead body in the expectation of any such
result ; but it would have been entirely in harmony with
current superstition. The stories and beliefs examined in
the present chapter prove that there has been no super-
stition too gross, or too cruel, to survive into the midst
of the civilization of the nineteenth century ; and the
exhumation of a corpse, of the two, is less barbarous than

1 Napier, p. 41 ; Lord A. Campbell, " Waifs and Strays," p. 71 ;
"Border Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 173.

134 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the torture by fire of an innocent child. The flight,
struggles, and transformation of a bespelled lady are found
both in marchen and saga : some examples of the latter
will come under our notice in a future chapter.

CHAPTER VI.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND.

The tale of Elidorus — Celtic and Teutonic stories of theft from super-
natural beings — The thief unsuccessful — Cases of successful robbery
— Robbery from the king of the serpents — Robbery of a drinking-
cup, or horn — The horn of Oldenburg and similar vessels — The
Luck of Edenhall — The cup of Ballafletcher — These vessels
sacrificial and pagan.

THE earliest writers who allude to the Welsh fairy tradi-
tions are Giraldus Cambrensis and Walter Map, two
members of that constellation of literary men which
rendered brilliant the early years of the Plantagenet
dynasty. Giraldus, with whom alone we have to do in
this chapter, lays the scene of what is perhaps his most
famous story near Swansea, and states that the adventures
narrated occurred a short time before his own days. The
story concerns one Elidorus, a priest, upon whose per-
sistent declarations it is founded. This good man in his
youth ran away from the discipline and frequent stripes
of his preceptor, and hid himself under the hollow bank
of a river. There he remained fasting for two days ; and
then two men of pigmy stature appeared, and invited
him to come with them, and they would lead him into a
country full of delights and sports. A more powerful
temptation could not have been offered to a runaway
schoolboy of twelve years old ; and the invitation was
speedily accepted. He accompanied his guides into a
subterranean land, where he found a people of small
stature but pure morals. He was brought into the pre-
sence of the king, and by him handed over to his son, who

t$6 THE SCIENCE Of t'AIRY TALES.

was then a boy. In that land he dwelt for some time ;
but he often used to return by various paths to the upper
day, and on one of these occasions he made himself
known to his mother, declaring to her the nature,
manners, and state of the pigmy folk. She desired him
to bring her a present of gold, which was plentiful in
that region ; and he accordingly stole a golden ball
while at play with the king's son, and ran off with it to
his mother, hotly pursued. Reaching home, his foot
stumbled on the threshold, and, dropping the ball, he
fell into the room where his mother was sitting. The
two pigmies who had followed him at once seized the ball
and made off with it, not without expressing their con-
tempt for the thief who had returned their kindness
with such ingratitude ; and Elidorus, though he sought
it carefully with penitence and shame, could never again
find the way into the underground realm.1

Narratives of the theft of valuables from supernatural
beings are found all the world over. In this way, for
example, in the mythology of more than one nation man-
kind obtained the blessing of fire. Such tales, however,
throw but little light on this one of Elidorus ; and it will
therefore be more profitable in considering it to confine
our attention to those generally resembling it current
among Celts and Teutons. They are very common ; and
the lesson they usually teach is that honesty is the best
policy — at all events, in regard to beings whose power is
not bounded by the ordinary human limitations. Begin-
ning with South Wales, we find one of these tales told
by the Rev. Edward Davies, a clergyman in Gloucester-
shire at the beginning of this century, who was the author
of two curious works on Welsh antiquities, stuffed with
useless, because misdirected, learning. The tale in ques-
tion relates to a small lake " in the mountains of
Brecknock," concerning which we are informed that
every Mayday a certain door in a rock near the lake was
1 Girald. Cambr., 1. i. c. 8.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 137

found open. He who was bold enough to enter was led
by a secret passage to a small island, otherwise invisible,
in the middle of the lake. This was a fairy island, a
garden of enchanting beauty, inhabited by the Tylwyth
Teg (or Fair Family), and stored with fruits and flowers.
The inhabitants treated their visitors with lavish hos-
pitality, but permitted nothing to be carried away. One
day this prohibition was violated by a visitor, who put
into his pocket a flower with which he had been presented.
The Fair Family showed no outward resentment. Their
guests were dismissed with the accustomed courtesy ; but
the moment he who had broken their behest " touched
unhallowed ground " the flower disappeared, and he lost
his senses. Nor has the mysterious door ever been found
again.1

In both these cases the thief is unsuccessful, and the
punishment of his crime is the loss of fairy intercourse ;
perhaps the mildest form which punishment could take.
But sometimes the chevalier d? Industrie is lucky enough
to secure his spoils. It is related that certain white
ghosts were in the habit of playing by night at skittles
on a level grass-plot on the Liiningsberg, near Aerzen, in
North Germany. A journeyman weaver, who was in
love with a miller's daughter, but lacked the means to
marry her, thought there could be no harm in robbing
the ghosts of one of the g.olden balls with which they
used to play. He accordingly concealed himself one
evening ; and when the harmless spectres came out he
seized one of their balls, and scampered away with it,

1 Davies, " Mythology," p. 155. Mr. Wirt Sikes quotes this story
without acknowledgment, stating that the legend, "varying but little
in phraseology, is current in the neighbourhood of a dozen different
mountain lakes." As if he had collected it himself! (Sikes, p. 45).
Compare an Eskimo story of a girl who, having acquired angakok
power, visited the ingnersuit, or underground folk, " and received
presents from them ; but while carrying them homewards the gifts were
wafted out of her hands and flew back to their first owners " (Rink,
p. 460).

138 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

followed by the angry owners. A stream crossed his
path, and, missing the plank bridge which spanned it, he
sprang into the water. This saved him, for the spirits
had no power there ; and a merry wedding was the
speedy sequel of his adventure. In like manner a fairy,
who, in a Breton saga, was incautious enough to winnow
gold in broad daylight in a field where a man was
pruning beeches, excited the latter's attention by this
singular proceeding ; and the man possessed himself of
the treasure by simply flinging into it a hallowed rosary.
In Germany the water-nix has the reputation of being
a good shoemaker. It is related that a man, who once saw
a nix on the shore of the March busy at his work, threw a
rosary upon it. The nix disappeared, leaving the shoe ;
and a variant states that the shoe was so well made that
the owner wore out successively twelve other shoes which
he had caused to be made to match it, without its being
any the worse.1

We have already seen in the last chapter that the
performance of Christian rites and the exhibition of
Christian symbols and sacred books have a powerful
effect against fairies. But further, the invocation, or
indeed the simple utterance, of a sacred name has always
been held to counteract enchantments and the wiles of all
supernatural beings who are not themselves part and
parcel of what I may, without offence and for want of a
better term, call the Christian mythology, and who may
therefore at times, if not constantly, be supposed to be
hostile to the Christian powers and to persons under
their protection. These beliefs are, of course, in one
form or another part of the machinery of every religion.
The tales just quoted are examples of the potency of a
symbol. A North German story is equally emphatic as
to the value of a holy name. We are told that late one

1 Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 120, apparently quoting Harry's " Sagen,
Marchen und Legenden Niedersachsens " ; Sebillot, "Trad, et Sup."
vol. i. p. 115 ; " Zcits. f. Volksk." vol. ii. p. 415, quoting Vernaleken.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 139

evening a boy saw a great number of hares dancing and
leaping. Now hares are specially witch-possessed animals.
As he stood and watched them one of them sprang
towards him and tried to bite his leg. But he said : u Go
away ! thou art not of God, but of the devil." Instantly
the whole company vanished ; but he heard a doleful
voice exclaiming : " My silver beaker, my silver beaker ! "
On reaching home he told his adventure ; and his father
at once started back with him to the place, where they
found a silver beaker inscribed with a name neither they
nor the goldsmith, to whom they sold the goblet for a
large sum of money, could read. The district whence
this story comes furnishes us also with an account of a
man who, being out late one night, came upon a fire sur-
rounded by a large circle of women sitting at a table. He
ventured to seat himself among them. Each one had
brought something for the meal ; and a man-cook went
round them asking each what she had got. When he
came to the hero of the story the latter struck him with
his stick, saying : " I have a blow which our Lord God
gave the devil." Thereupon the whole assembly dis-
appeared, leaving nothing behind but the kettle which
hung over the fire, and which the man took and long
preserved to testify the truth of his story. A Cornish
fisherman was scarcely less lucky Avithout the protection
of a pious exclamation. For one night going home he
found a crowd of "little people" on the beach. They
were sitting in a semicircle holding their hats towards
one of their number, who was pitching gold pieces from
a heap into them. The fisherman contrived to introduce
his hat among them without being noticed, and having
got a share of the money, made off with it. He was fol-
lowed by the piskies, but had a good start, and managed
to reach home and shut the door upon them. Yet so
narrow was his escape that he left the tails of his sea-coat
in their hands.1

1 Kuhn und Schwartz, pp. 305, 306; "Choice Notes," p. 76.

140 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Vengeance, however, is sometimes swift and sure upon
these robberies. It is believed in Germany that the king
of the snakes is wont to come out to sun himself at noon ;
and that he then lays aside his crown, a prize for any one
who can seize it. A horseman, coming at the opportune
moment, did so once ; but the serpent-king called forth his
subjects and pursued him. By the help of his good steed
the man succeeded in arriving at home ; and, thankful to
have escaped the danger, he patted the beast's neck as he
jumped down, saying : " Faithfully hast thou helped me ! "
At that instant a snake, which had hidden herself un-
noticed in the horse's tail, bit the man ; and little joy had
he of his crime. In another story the girl who steals the
crown is deafened by the cries of her victim ; and else-
where, when the serpent-king is unable to reach the
robber, he batters his own head to pieces in ineffectual
rage. Perhaps he deserved his fate in some of these
cases, for it seems he had a foolish liking to lay down his
crown on a white cloth, or a white, or blue, silk hand-
kerchief,— a predilection which the robber did not fail to
provide him with the opportunity of gratifying, and of
repenting.1

Other tales represent the thief as compelled to restore
the stolen goods. Thus a man who found the trolls on
the Danish isle of Fuur carrying their treasures out into
the air, shot thrice over them, and thereby forced the
owners to quit them. He caught up the gold and silver
and rode off with it, followed by the chief troll. But
after he got into the house and shut the doors there was
such a storming and hissing outside, that the whole house
seemed ablaze. Terrified, he flung the bag wherein he

1 Niederhoffer, vol. iv. p. 130; Bartscb, vol. i. p. 278 ; Thorpe, vol.
iii. p. 56, quoting Miillenhoff ; Birlinger, " Volksthiimliches," vol. i.
p. 103 ; Grimm, " Tales," vol. ii. p. 77. A Lusatian tradition quoted
by Grimm in a note represents the watersnake-king's crown as not
only valuable in itself, but like other fairy property, the bringer of
great riches to its possessor. Ibid. 406. Cf. a Hindoo story to the
same effect, Day, p. 17 ; and many other tales.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 141

had secured the treasures out into the night. The storm
ceased, and he heard a voice crying : " Thou hast still
enough." In the morning he found a heavy silver cup,
which had fallen behind a chest of drawers. Again, a
farm servant of South Kongerslev, in Denmark, who
went at his master's instance, on Christmas Eve, to see
what the trolls in a neighbouring hill were doing, was
offered drink from a golden cup. He took the cup, and
casting out its contents, spurred his horse from the spot,
hotly pursued. On the way back he passed the dwelling
of a band of trolls at enmity with those from whom he
had stolen the cup. Counselled by them, he took to the
ploughed field, where his pursuers were unable to follow
him, and so escaped. The farmer kept the goblet until
the following Christmas Eve, when his wife imprudently
helped a tattered beggar to beer in it. It is not wonder-
ful that both the cup and the beggar vanished ; but we
are to understand that the beggar was a troll. Perhaps
he was. In Thyholm, a district of Denmark, there is a
range of lofty mounds formerly inhabited by trolls.
Some peasants who were once passing by these mounds
prayed the trolls to give them some beer. In a moment
a little creature came out and presented a large silver can
to one of the men, who had no sooner grasped it than he
set spurs to his horse, with the intention of keeping it.
But the little man of the -mound was too quick for him,
for he speedily caught him and compelled him to return
the can. In a Pomeranian story the underground folk
forestalled the intention to rob them on the part of a
farmer's boy whose thirst they had quenched with a can
of delicious brown-beer. Having drunk, he hid the can
itself, with the object of taking it home when his day's
work was done, for it was of pure silver ; but when he
afterwards went to look for it, it had disappeared.1

Moreover, ungrateful mortals are sometimes punished,

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. pp. 148, 146, 121, quoting Thiele, " Danmarks
Folkesagn ; " Jahn, p. 75.

142 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

even when they are lucky enough to secure their prize.
Thus it is told of a man of Zahren, in Mecklenburg, who
was seized with thirst on his way home from Penzlin,
that he heard music in a barrow known to be the haunt
of the underground folk. People were then on familiar
terms with the latter ; and the man cried out and asked
for a drink. Nor did he ask in vain ; for his appeal was
at once answered by the appearance of a little fellow with
a flask of delicious drink. After slaking his thirst the
man took the opportunity to make off with the flask ;
but he Avas pursued by the whole troop of elves, only one
of whom, and he had only one leg, succeeded in keeping
up with him. The thief, however, managed to get over
a cross-road where One-leg could not follow him ; and
the latter then, making a virtue of necessity, cried out :
" Thou mayst keep the flask ; and henceforth always
drink thereout, for it will never be empty ; but beware
of looking into it." For some years the elf's injunction
was observed ; but one day, in a fit of curiosity, the
peasant looked into the bottom of the flask, and there sat
a horrid toad ! The toad disappeared, and so did the
liquor ; and the man in a short time fell miserably sick.
In a Norse tale, a man whose bride is about to be carried
off by Huldre-folk, rescues her by shooting over her head
a pistol loaded with a silver bullet. This has the effect
of dissolving the witchery ; and he is forthwith enabled
to seize her and gallop off, not unpursued. One of the
trolls, to retard his flight, held out to him a well-filled
golden horn. He took the horn, but cast the liquor
away, and rode away with both horn and girl. The
trolls, when they found themselves unable to catch him,
cried after him in their exasperation : " The red cock
shall crow over thy dwelling ! " And behold ! his house
stood in a blaze. Similarly, a Swedish tradition relates
that one of the serving-men of the lady of Liungby, in
Scania, one night of Christmas in the year 1490, rode
out to inquire the cause of the noise at the Magle stone.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 143

He found the trolls dancing and making merry. A fair
troll-woman stepped forth and offered him a drinking-
horn and a pipe, praying he would drink the troll-king's
health and blow in the pipe. He snatched the horn
and pipe from her, and spurring back to the mansion,
delivered them into his lady's hands. The trolls fol-
lowed and begged to have their treasures back, promising
prosperity to the lady's race if she would restore them.
She kept them, however ; and they are said to be still
preserved at Liungby as memorials of the adventure.
But the serving-man who took them died three days
after, and the horse on the second day ; the mansion has
been twice burnt, and the family never prospered after.
On the eve of the first of May the witches of Germany
hold high revel. Every year the fields and farmyards of
a certain landowner were so injured by these nocturnal
festivities that one of his servants determined to put a
stop to the mischief. Going to the trysting-place, he
found the witches eating and drinking around a large
slab of marble which rested on four golden pillars ; and on
the slab lay a golden horn of wondrous form. The
sorceresses invited him to join the feast ; but a fellow-
servant whom he met there warned him not to drink, for
they only wished to poison him. Wherefore he flung
the proffered beverage away, seized the horn, and galloped
home as hard as he could. All doors and gates had been
left open for him ; and the witches consequently were
unable to catch him. The next day a gentleman in fine
clothes appeared and begged his master to restore the
horn, promising in return to surround his property with
a wall seven feet high, but threatening, in case of refusal,
to burn his farms down thrice, and that just when he
thought himself richest. Three days were allowed to the
landowner for consideration, but he declined to restore
the horn. The next harvest had hardly been housed
when his barns were in flames. Three times did this
happen, and the landowner was reduced to poverty. By

144 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the king's kindness he was enabled to rebuild ; and he
then made every effort to discover the owner of the horn,
sending it about for that purpose even as far as Constan-
tinople ; but no one could be found to claim it.1

Somewhat more courteous was a Danish boy whom an
Elf-maiden met and offered drink from a costly drinking-
horn one evening as he rode homeward late from Ristrup
to Siellevskov. He received the horn, but fearing to
drink its contents, poured them out behind him, so that,
as in several of these stories, they fell on the horse's
back, and singed the hair off. The horn he held fast,
and the horse probably needed no second hint to start at
the top of its speed. The elf-damsel gave chase until
horse and man reached a running water, across which
she could not follow them. Seeing herself outwitted, she
implored the youth to give her back the horn, promising
him in reward the strength of twelve men. On this
assurance he returned the horn to her, and got what she
had promised him. But the exchange was not very
profitable ; for with the strength of twelve men he had
unfortunately acquired the appetite of twelve. Here it
may well be thought that the supernatural gift only took
its appropriate abatement. In a story from the north of
Scotland the cup Avas stolen for the purpose of undoing a
certain spell, and was honourably returned when the
purpose was accomplished. Uistean, we are told, was a
great slayer of Fuathan, supernatural beings apparently
akin to fairies. He shot one day into a wreath of mist,
and a beautiful woman fell down at his side. He took
her home ; and she remained in his house for a year,
speechless. On a day at the end of the year he was
benighted in the mountains, and seeing a light in a
hill, he drew nigh, and found the fairies feasting. He
entered the hill, and heard the butler, as he was handing

1 Bartsch, vol. i. p. 83 (see also p. 41) ; Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 6, quoting
Faye, "Norske Folke-sagn " ; ibid. p. 89, quoting Afiielius, " Svenske
Folkets Sago-Hafder " ; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 26.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 145

the drink round, say : " It is a year from this night's
night that we lost the daughter of the Earl of Antrim.
She has the power of the draught on her that she does
not speak a word till she gets a drink from the cup that
is in my hand." When the butler reached Uistean, he
handed him the cup. The latter, on getting it in his
hand, ran off, pursued by the fairies until the cock crew.
When he got home, he gave the lady in his house to
drink out of the cup ; and immediately her speech
returned. She then told him she was the Earl of
Antrim's daughter, stolen by the fairies from child-bed.
Uistean took back the cup to the hill Avhence he had
brought it, and then restored the lady to her father safe
and sound, the fairy woman who had been left in her
place vanishing meantime in a flame of fire.1

There are also legends in which a hat conferring
invisibility, or a glove, figures ; but the stolen article is
usually, as in most of the instances cited above, a cup or
a drinking-horn. Many such articles are still preserved
in various parts of Northern Europe. Of these the most
celebrated are the Luck of Edenhall and the Oldenburg
horn. But before discussing these I must refer to some
other stories, the material evidence of Avhich is no longer
extant. Gervase of Tilbury relates that in a forest of
Gloucestershire there is a glade in the midst whereof
stands a hillock rising to the height of a man. Knights
and hunters were wont, when fatigued with heat and
thirst, to ascend the hillock in question to obtain relief.
This had to be done singly and alone. The adventurous
man then would say: "I thirst," wrhen a cupbearer would
appear and present him with a large drinking-horn
adorned with gold and gems, as, says the writer, was the
custom among the most ancient English, and containing
liquor of some unknown but most delicious flavour. When
he had drunk this, all heat and weariness fled from his

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 142, quoting Thiele. See also Keightley, p. 88 ;
Campbell, vol. ii. p. 97.

II

146 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

body, and the cupbearer presented him with a towel
to wipe his mouth withal ; and then having performed
his office he disappeared, waiting neither for recompense
nor inquiry. One day an ill-conditioned knight of the
city of Gloucester, having gotten the horn into his hands,
contrary to custom and good manners kept it. But the
Earl of Gloucester, having heard of it, condemned the
robber to death, and gave the horn to King Henry I.,
lest he should be thought to have approved of such
wickedness if he had added the rapine of another to the
store of his own private property. Gervase of Tilbury
wrote near the beginning of the thirteenth century. His
contemporary, William of Newbury, relates a similar
story, but lays its scene in Yorkshire. He says that a
peasant coming home late at night, not very sober, and
passing by a barrow, heard the noise of singing and
feasting. Seeing a door open in the side of the barrow,
he looked in, and beheld a great banquet. One of the
attendants offered him a cup, which he took, but would
not drink. Instead of doing so, he poured out the con-
tents, and kept the vessel. The fleetness of his beast
enabled him to distance all pursuit, and he escaped.
We are told that the cup, described as of unknown
material, of unusual colour and of extraordinary form,
was presented to Henry I., who gave it to his brother-
in-law, David, King of the Scots. After having been
kept for several years in the Scottish treasury it was
given by William the Lion to King Henry II., who
wished to see it.1

By a fortune somewhat rare, this story, having been
written down in the days of the early Plantagenet kings,
has been lately found again among the folk in the
East Riding. The how, or barrow, where it is now said
to have occurred is Willey How, near Wold Newton, on
the Bridlington road, a conspicuous mound about three

1 Gerv. Tilb., Decis. iii. c. 60; Guil. Neub. " Chronica Rerun;
Anglic." lib. i. c. 28, quoted by Liebrecht in a note to Gerv. Tilb.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND; 147

hundred feet in circumference and sixty feet in height.
The rustic to whom the adventure happened was an
inhabitant of Wold Newton, who had been on a visit to
the neighbouring village of North Burton, and was
belated. Another tale resembling the Gloucestershire
saga is found in Swabia, though the object of which
the mysterious benefactor was deprived was not a cup,
but a knife. Some farm servants, while at work in the
fields, were approached by an unusually beautiful maiden
clad in black. Every day about nine or ten o'clock in
the morning, and again about four o'clock in the after-
noon, she brought them a small pitcher of wine and a
loaf of snow-white bread — greater luxuries, probably, to
peasants then even than they would be now. She always
brought a very pretty silver knife to cut the bread, and
always begged them to be sure to give it back to her,
else she were lost. Her visits continued until one of the
servants took it into his head to keep the knife, which
he was ungrateful enough to do in spite of her tears and
prayers. Finding all entreaties vain, she uttered piercing
cries of distress, tore her fair hair, rent her silken clothes,
and vanished, never to be seen again. But often you
may hear on the spot where she once appeared sobs and
the sound of weeping.1

A Cornish tale relates that a farmer's boy of Portallow
was one night sent to a neighbouring village for some
household necessaries. On the way he fell in with some
piskies, and by repeating the formula he heard them use,
transported himself with them, first to Portallow Green,
then to Seaton Beach, and finally to "the King of
France's cellar," where he joined his mysterious com-
panions in tasting that monarch's wines. They then
passed through magnificent rooms, where the tables were

1 Nicholson, p. 83. Mr. Nicholson in a letter to me says that he
had the story as given by him from an old inhabitant of Bricllington,
and that it is current in -the neighbourhood. Birlinger, " Volkst."
vol. i. pp. 3, 5.

148 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

laden for a feast. By way of taking some memorial of
his travels he pocketed one of the rich silver goblets
which stood on one of the tables. After a very short
stay the word was passed to return, and presently he
found himself again at home. The good wife compli-
mented him on his despatch. " You'd say so, if you only
know'd where I've been," he replied ; " I've been wi' the
piskies to Seaton Beach, and I've been to the King o'
France's house, and all in five minutes." The farmer
stared and said the boy was mazed. " I thought you'd
say I was mazed, so I brort away this mug to show vor
et," he answered, producing the goblet. With such
undeniable evidence his story could not be any longer
doubted. Stealing from a natural enemy like the King
of France was probably rather meritorious than other-
wise ; and the goblet remained in the boy's family for
generations, though unfortunately it is no longer forth-
coming for the satisfaction of those who may still be
sceptical.1

This story differs from the others I have detailed, in
narrating a raid by supernatural beings on the dwelling
of a human potentate — a raid in which a human creature
joined and brought away a substantial trophy. In the
seventeenth century there was in the possession of Lord
Duffus an old silver cup, called the Fairy Cup, con-
cerning which the following tradition was related to John
Aubrey, the antiquary, by a correspondent writing from
Scotland on the 25th of March 1695. An ancestor of the
then Lord Duffus was walking in the fields near his house
in Morayshire when he heard the noise of a whirlwind and
of voices crying : " Horse and Hattock ! " This was the
exclamation fairies were said to use " when they remove
from any place." Lord Duffus was bold enough to cry
" Horse and Hattock " also, and was immediately caught
up through the air with the fairies to the King of France's
cellar at Paris, where, after he had heartily drunk, he
1 " Choice Notes/' ji. 73,

FROM FAIRVLAXD. 149

fell asleep. There he was found lying the next morning
with the silver cup in his hand, and was promptly brought
before the King, to whom, on being questioned, he re-
peated this story ; and the King, in dismissing him,
presented him with the cup. Where it may be now I
do not know, nor does Aubrey's correspondent furnish
us with any description of it, save the negative but
important remark that it had nothing engraven upon it
beside the arms of the family.1

On this vessel, therefore, if it be yet in existence, there
is nothing to warrant the name of Fairy Cup, or to
connect it with the adventure just related. Nor does the
Oldenburg Horn itself bear any greater marks of authen-
ticity. That famous vessel is still exhibited at the palace
of Rosenberg at Copenhagen. It is of silver gilt, and
ornamented in paste with enamel. It bears coats of
arms and inscriptions, showing that it was made for
King Christian I. of Denmark in honour of the Three
Kings of Cologne, and cannot therefore be older than the
middle of the fifteenth century. The legend attached to
it claims for it a much greater antiquity. The legend itself
was narrated in Hamelmann's (( Oldenburger Chronik "
at the end of the sixteenth century, and is even yet current
in the mouths of the Oldenburg folk. Hamelmann dates
it in the year 990, when the then Count of Oldenburg
was hunting in the forest of Bernefeuer. He had followed
a roe from that forest to the Osenberg, and had distanced
all his attendants. It was the twentieth of July, the
weather was hot, and the count thirsty. He cried out
for a draught of water, and had scarcely uttered the
words, when the hill opened and a beautiful damsel
appeared and offered him drink in this horn. Not liking
the look of the beverage, he declined to drink. Where-
upon she pressed him to do so, assuring him that it would
go well with him and his thenceforth, and with the whole
house of Oldenburg ; but if the count would not believe
1 Aubrey, " Miscellany," p. 149.

150 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

her and drink there would be no unity from that time in
the Oldenburg family. He had no faith in her words,
and poured out the drink, which took the hair off his
horse wherever it splashed him, and galloped away with
the horn.1

Other drinking-horns, of which precisely analogous
tales are told, are still to be seen in Norway. Of the
one at Halsteengaard it is related that the posterity of
the robber, down to the ninth generation, were afflicted,
as a penalty, with some bodily blemish. This horn is
described as holding nearly three quarts, and as being
encircled by a strong gilt copper ring, about three inches
broad, on which, in monkish characters, are to be read
the names of the Three Kings of Cologne, Melchior,
Baltazar, and Caspar. It is further ornamented with a
small gilt copper plate, forming the setting of an oval
crystal. Another horn, preserved in the museum at
Arendal, was obtained in a similar manner. A father,
pursuing his daughter and her lover, was stopped by a
troll, and offered drink in it. Instead of drinking, he
cast out the contents, with the usual result, and put
spurs to his horse. He was counselled by another troll,
who was not on good terms with the first, to ride through
the rye and not through the wheat ; but even when his
pursuer was impeded by the tall rye-stalks, only the
crowing of the cock before dawn rescued him. The
vessel is encircled by three silver gilt rings, bearing an
inscription, Avhich seems not quite correctly reported, as
follows : " Potum servorum benedic deus alme tuorum
reliquam unus benede le un Caspar Melchior Baltazar." 2

1 Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 128 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 280. The latter
is the version still found as traditional. Its details are not so full, and
are in some respects different.

2 Thorpe, vol. ii. pp. 15, 14, apparently quoting Faye. Dr. Geo.
Stephens of the University of Copenhagen very kindly made a great
number of inquiries for me with a view to obtain information, and, if
possible, drawings of the Scandinavian horns and cups, but unhappily
with little success. The answer to his inquiries in reference to the horns

ROBBERIES PROM FAIRYLAND. 151

The legend of which I am treating attaches also to a
number of sacred chalices. At Aagerup, in Zealand, is
one of these. The thief, nearly overtaken by the trolls
he had robbed, prayed to God in his distress, and vowed
to bestow the cup upon the church if his prayer were
heard. The church of Vigersted, also in Zealand,
possesses another. In the latter case the man took
refuge in the church, where he was besieged by the
trolls until morning. In Bornholm a chalice and paten
belonging to the church are said to have been made out
of a cup stolen in the same way by a peasant whose
mother was a mermaid, and who had inherited some
portion of her supernatural power ; hence, probably, his
intercourse with the trolls, of which he took so mean an
advantage. At Viol, near Flensborg, in Schleswig, is a

of Halsteengaard and Arendal, sent by Prof. Olaf Rygh, the learned
Keeper of the Norwegian Museum at Christiania, will be read with
interest. He says: "Mr. Hartland's notice of ' Halstengaard ' in
Norway doubtless refers to a local tale about a drinking-horn formerly
in the hands of the owner of Holsteingaard, Aal parish, Hallingdal.
It was first made public in the year 174-, in 'Ivar Wiels Beskriveke
over Ringerige og Hallingdals Fogderi,' in ' Topografisk Journal for
Norge,' Part XXXI., Christiania, 1804, pp. 179-183. I know nothing
more as to the fate of this horn than what is said in Nicolaysen's ' Norske
Fornlevninger,' p. 152, that it is said to have been sent to the Bergen
Museum in 1845. Should this be so, it will be almost impossible to
identify it among the many such horns in that collection. As described
by Wiel, it was merely a very simple specimen of the kind with the
common inscription JASPAR X MELCHIOR X BALTAZAR.
This class of horn was largely imported to Norway from North Germany
in the I5th and i6th centuries.

" Meanwhile I beg to point out that the oldest legend of this kind
which has come down to us is found in ' Biskop Jens Nilssons Visitats-
boger og Reise-optegnelser, udgivne af Dr. Yngvar Nielsen,' p. 393.
It was written by the bishop or his amanuensis during his visitation,
I59S> in Flatdal parish, Telemarken. What has become of the horn
spoken of by the bishop I cannot say.

" I have no idea of what is meant by Mr. Hartland's reference to
Arendal. Possibly it may concern something in the museum there, but
of which I never heard. The printed catalogue of the museum (Arendal,
1882) includes nothing from the middle age or later."

152 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

beaker belonging to the church, and, like the chalice at
Aagerup, of gold, of which it is narrated that it was
presented full of a liquor resembling buttermilk to a
man who was riding by a barrow where the underground
folk were holding high festival. He emptied and rode
off with it in the usual manner. A cry arose behind
him : " Three-legs, come out ! " and, looking round, he
saw a monster pursuing him. Finding this creature
unable to come up with him, he heard many voices
calling : " Two-legs, come out ! " But his horse was
swifter than Two-legs. Then One-leg was summoned,
as in the story already cited from Mecklenburg, and came
after him with gigantic springs, and would have caught
him, but the door of his own house luckily stood open.
He had scarcely entered, and slammed it to, when One-
leg stood outside, banging against it, and foiled. The
beaker was presented to the church in fulfilment of a
vow made by the robber in his fright ; and it is now used
as the communion-cup. At Rambin, on the island of
Riigen, is another cup, the story of which relates that
the man to whom it was offered by the underground folk
did not refuse to drink, but having drunk, he kept the
vessel and took it home. A boy who was employed to
watch horses by night on a turf moor near the village of
Kritzemow, in Mecklenburg, annoyed the underground
folk by the constant cracking of his Avhip. One night,
as he was thus amusing himself, a mannikin came up to
him and offered him drink in a silver-gilt beaker. The
boy took the beaker, but being openly on bad terms with
the elves, argued no good to himself from such an offer-
ing. So he instantly leaped on horseback and fled, with
the vessel in his hand, along the road to Biestow and
Rostock. The mannikin, of course, followed, but, coming
to a crossway, Avas compelled to give up the chase. When
the boy reached Biestow much of the liquid, as was to be
expected, had been shaken out of the cup, and wherever
on the horse it had fallen the hair had been burnt away.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 153

Glad of escaping this danger, the boy thanked God and
handed the vessel over to the church at Biestow. In
none of these instances, however, do I find any descrip-
tion of the goblet.1

Fortunately there is one, and that the most celebrated
of all the cups to which a fairy origin has been ascribed,
which has been often and accurately delineated both with
pen and pencil. I refer to the Luck of Edenhall. It
belongs to Sir George Musgrave of Edenhall, in Cumber-
land, in the possession of whose family it has been for
many generations. The tradition is that a butler, going
to fetch water from a well in the garden, called St.
Cuthbert's Well, came upon a company of fairies at their
revels, and snatched it from them. As the little, ill-used
folk disappeared, after an ineffectual attempt to recover
it, they cried :

" If this glass do break or fall,
Farewell the luck of Edenhall ! "

The most recent account of it was written in the year
1880, by the Rev. Dr. Fitch, for "The Scarborough
Gazette," from which it has been reprinted for private cir-
culation in the shape of a dainty pamphlet. He speaks
of it, from a personal examination, as "a glass stoup, a
drinking vessel, about six inches in height, having a
circular base, perfectly flat, two inches in diameter,
gradually expanding upwards till it ends in a mouth four
inches across. The material is by no means fine in
quality, presenting, as it does on close inspection, several
small cavities or air-bubbles. The general hue is a warm
green, resembling the tone known by artists as brown
pink. Upon the transparent glass is traced a geometric
pattern in white and blue enamel, somewhat raised,

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 144, quoting Thiele. Keightley, pp. 109,
in, note; (The latter mentions another theft of a silver jug where
the thief was saved by crossing running water.) Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 140 ;
vol. iii. p. 70, quoting Mullenhoff ; Jahn, p. 53 ; Bartsch, vol. i. p. 60.

154 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

aided by gold and a little crimson. It will, of course,
stand on its base, but it would be far from wise to entrust
it, when filled, to this support." Dr. Fitch is in accord
with the common opinion of antiquaries in pronouncing
it to be of Venetian origin, though Mr. Franks thought
it Saracenic. He describes the case in which it is kept as
evidently made for it, being of the same shape. " The
lid of this case," he says, "rather unevenly fits the body
by overlapping it. There is no hinge ; the fastenings
are certain hooks or catches, not in good condition ; the
security and better apposition of the lid is maintained by
a piece of leather, not unlike a modern boot-lace, or thin
thong. The case dates, probably, from the fifteenth
century, as articles made of similar material, viz., cuir
bouilli, softened or boiled leather, were much in use in
that age. This case bears an elegantly varied pattern
that has been recognized in an inkstand of Henry the
Seventh's, yet extant. Upon the lid of this case, in very
chaste and well-formed characters, is the sacred mono-
gram I.H.S." These three letters, which do not really
form a monogram, have possibly given rise to the
surmise, or tradition, that the Luck was once used as
a sacred vessel. Dr. Fitch goes on to quote several
authorities, showing that chalices of glass were sanctioned
by the church, and were, in fact, made and used ; and
the Luck may have been such a vessel. But I can see no
sufficient evidence of it. There is nothing to show that
the leathern case is of the same date as the glass itself ;
and it may have been made long afterwards. The earliest
mention of the relic seems to have been by Francis
Douce, the antiquary, who was at Edenhall in 1785, and
wrote some verses upon it ; nor is there any authentic
family history attaching to it. The shape of the goblet,
its unsteadiness when full, and the difficulty of drinking
from it without spilling some of its contents, of which Dr.
Fitch had some experience, would point to its being
intended rather for convivial than sacred uses.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 155

The hypothesis of the Luck's having once been a chalice
explains nothing ; because, as we have seen, several of the
cups alleged to have been stolen from supernatural beings
are chalices to this day. Moreover, what are we to think
of the drinking-horns of which the same tale is told ?
Some of these already mentioned bear, not indeed the
sacred letters, but prayers and the names of the sainted
Kings of Cologne, though, unlike the cups, they are not
found in churches. One drinking-horn, however, was
preserved in the cathedral at Wexio, in Sweden, until
carried away by the Danes in 1570. This horn, stated to
be of three hundred colours, was received by a knight on
Christmas morning from a troll-wife, whose head he
there and then cut off with his sword. The king dubbed
him Trolle in memory of the deed, and bestowed on him
a coat-of-arms containing a headless troll.1 How the
horn came into the possession of the cathedral I do not
know ; but at all events it could never have been a
chalice.

A silver cup, perhaps still used for sacramental
purposes at the parish church of Malew, in the Isle of
Man, is the subject of the following legend. A farmer
returning homeward to the parish of Malew from Peel
was benighted and lost his way among the mountains.
In the course of his wanderings he was drawn by the
sound of sweet music into a- large hall where a number of
little people were banqueting. Among them were some
faces he thought he had formerly seen ; but he forbore to
take any notice of them. Nor did they take any notice
of him until he was offered drink, when one of them,
whose features seemed not unknown to him, plucked him
by the coat and forbade him, whatever he did, to taste
anything he saw before him ; " for if you do," he added,
" you will be as I am, and return no more to your
family." Accordingly, when a large silver beaker was
put into his hand, filled with liquor, he found an oppor-
1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 91, quoting Afzelius.

156 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

tunity to throw its contents on the ground. The music
forthwith ceased, and the company disappeared, leaving
the cup in his hand. On finding his way home, he told
the minister of the parish what had occurred ; and the
latter, with the instincts of his profession, advised him to
devote the cup to the service of the Church. We are
indebted to Waldron's well-known " Description of the
Isle of Man," originally published in 1731, for this story.
A later writer, annotating Waldron's work rather more
than a quarter of a century ago, refers to the vessel in
question as a paten ; he states that it was still preserved
in the church, and that it bore engraved the legend :
" Sancte Lupe ora pro nobis." T There are no fewer
than eleven saints named Lupus in the calendar.
Whichever of them was invoked here, the inscription
points to a continental origin for the vessel, whether cup
or paten, and is not inconsistent with its being of some
antiquity.

Mr. Train, who quotes the tradition in his account of
the Isle of Man, states that several similar tales had been
placed at his disposal by friends in the island ; but it was
naturally beneath the dignity of an historian to do more
than give a single specimen of this " shade of super-
stition," as he calls it. He does, however, mention
(though apparently without being conscious of any close
relationship with the cup of Kirk Malew) an antique
crystal goblet in the possession, when he Avrote, of
Colonel Wilks, the proprietor of the Estate of Balla-
fletcher, four or five miles from Douglas. It is described
as larger than a common bell-shaped tumbler, un-
commonly light and chaste in appearance, and orna-
mented with floral scrolls, having between the designs,
on two sides, upright columella of five pillars. The
history of this cup is interesting. It is said to have been
taken by Magnus, the Norwegian King of Man, from
St. Olave's shrine. On what ground this statement rests
1 Waldron, pp. 28, 106.

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 157

does not appear. What is really known about the goblet
is that having belonged for at least a hundred years to
the Fletcher family, the owners of Ballafletcher, it was
sold with the effects of the last of the family in 1778, and
was bought by Robert Caesar, Esq., who gave it to his
niece for safe keeping. This niece was, perhaps, the
" old lady, a connection of the family of Fletcher," who
is mentioned by Train as having presented the cup to
Colonel Wilks. The tradition is that it had been given
to the first of the Fletcher family more than two centuries
ago, with the injunction " that as long as he preserved it
peace and plenty would follow ; but woe to him who broke
it, as he would surely be haunted by the Ihiannan Shse"
or "peaceful spirit" of Ballafletcher. It was kept in
a recess, whence it was never taken except on Christmas
and Easter days, or, according to Train's account, at
Christmas alone. Then, we are told, it was "filled with
wine, and quaffed off at a breath by the head of the house
only, as a libation to the spirit for her protection." *

Here is no mention of the theft of the goblet unless
from St. Olave's sanctuary ; but yet I think AVC have
a glimpse of the real character of the cups to which the
legend I am discussing attaches. They were probably
sacrificial vessels dedicated to the old pagan worship of
the house-spirits, of which we find so many traces among
the Indo-European peoples. These house-spirits had
their chief seat on the family hearth ; and their great
festival was that of the New Year, celebrated at the
winter solstice. The policy of the Church in early and
mediaeval times was to baptize to Christian uses as many

1 Train, vol. ii. p. 154; and see a note by Harrison to his edition of
Waldron, p. 106. The cup is stated by Harrison to have been, when
he wrote, in the possession of Major Bacon, of Seafield House. Mrs.
Russell, of Oxford, kindly made inquiries for me in the Isle of Man as
to its present whereabouts, and that of the cup of Kirk Malew, and
inserted a query in Yn Livar Manninagh, the organ of the Isle of
Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, but without eliciting
any information.

158 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of the heathen beliefs and ceremonies as possible. The
New Year festival thus became united with the anni-
versary of the birth of Christ ; and it is matter of
history that as the Danes used, previously to their con-
version, to drink to Odin and the Anses, so after that
event they were in the habit of solemnly pledging Our
Lord, His Apostles and the Saints. Such of the old
beliefs and practices, however, as the Church could
neither impress with a sacred character, nor destroy,
lingered on. Among them were the superstitions of the
fairies and the household spirits ; and there is nothing
unlikely in the supposition that special vessels were kept
for the ceremonies in which these beings were propitiated.
For this purpose a horn would serve as well as any goblet ;
if, indeed, it were not actually preferred, as being older,
and therefore more sacred in shape and material. As
these ceremonies gradually fell into desuetude, or were
put down by clerical influence, it would be both natural
and in accordance with policy that the cups devoted to
the supposed rites should be transferred to the service of
the Church.1 They would all be old-fashioned, quaint,
and, many of them, of foreign and unknown provenance.
Already connected in the minds of the people with the
spirit world, a supernatural origin would be ascribed to
them ; and gift or robbery would be the theory of acqui-
sition most readily adopted. Now, theory in a certain
stage of culture is indistinguishable from narrative.

In this chapter I have dealt entirely with stolen goods ;
but, as we have seen in previous chapters, tales of cups
and other articles lent or given by elves in exchange for
services rendered are by no means unknown. I cannot,
however, recall any of such gifts which are now extant.
It were much to be wished that all the drinking-vessels — •

1 It is not irrelevant to observe in this connection that several of the
chalices in Sweden are said to have been presented to the churches by
priests to whom a Berg-woman had offered drink in these very cups or
bowls (Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 90, quoting Afzelius).

ROBBERIES FROM FAIRYLAND. 159

nay, all the articles of every kind — to which legends of
supernatural origin belong were actually figured and
described. Much light would thereby be thrown upon
their true history. I will only now point out, with
regard to the Luck of Edenhall, and the three horns of
Oldenburg, of Halsteengaard, and of Arendal, of which
we have full descriptions, that what we know of them is
all in confirmation of the theory suggested. In par-
ticular, the names of the Three Kings connect the horns
with a Christmas, or Twelfth Night, festival, which is
exactly what the theory of the sacrificial nature of these
vessels would lead us to expect. If we turn from the
actual beakers to the stories, it is surprising how many
of these we find pointing to the same festival. The cup
of South Kongerslev was Avon and lost on Christmas
Eve. The horn and pipe of Liungby were stolen "one
night of Christmas." It was at Christmas-time that the
Danish boy acquired his supernatural strength by giving
back to the elf-maiden the horn he had taken from her.
The Halsteengaard horn and the golden beaker of
Aagerup were both reft from the trolls on Christmas
Eve, and the horn of Wexio on Christmas morning.
The night of St. John's Day is mentioned as the time
when the horn now at Arendal was obtained. The saint
here referred to is probably St. John the Evangelist,
whose feast is on December the 27th. And in more than
one case the incident is connected with a marriage, which
would be an appropriate occasion for the propitiation of
the household spirit. The only instance presenting any
difficulty is that of the cup at Kirk Malew ; and there the
difficulty arises from the name of the saint to whom the
cup was apparently dedicated. Nor is it lessened by
the number of saints bearing the name of Lupus. The
days on which these holy men are respectively com-
memorated range through the calendar from January to
October ; and until we know which of them was intended
it is useless to attempt an explanation. The question,

l6o THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

however, is of small account in the face of the probability
called forth by the coincidences that remain.

There is one other matter to which I would call
attention, namely, that while stories of the type discussed
in the foregoing pages are common to both Celts and
Teutons, the stolen cup is exclusively a Teutonic
possession. More than that, no authentic record of the
preservation of the relic itself is found save in the homes
and conquests of the Scandinavian race. Is this to be
accounted for by the late date of Christianity, and, there-
fore, the more recent survival of heathen rites among
Teutonic, and especially Scandinavian, peoples ?

CHAPTER VII.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND.

The story of Rhys and Llewelyn — Dancing for a twelvemonth — British
variants — Lapse of time among the Siberian Tartars — German
and Slavonic stories — The penalty of curiosity and greed — A
Lapp tale — The mother leaving her child in the mysterious cave —
Rip van Winkle — Eastern variants — King Herla— The Adalantado
of the Seven Cities — The Seven Sleepers— King Wenzel and the
smith — Lost brides and bridegrooms — The Monk Felix — Visits to
Paradise — A Japanese tale.

IN previous chapters we have seen that human beings are
sometimes taken by fairies into Fairyland, and that they
are there kept for a longer or shorter period, or, it may
be, are never permitted to return to earth at all. We
have noted cases in which they are led down for
temporary purposes and, if they are prudent, are enabled
to return when those purposes are accomplished. We
have noted other cases in which babes or grown women
have been stolen and retained until their kindred have
compelled restoration. The story cited in the last
chapter from Giraldus describes a seduction of a
different kind. There ths visit to Fairyland was of a
more voluntary character, and the hero was able to go
to and fro as he pleased. We have also met with tales
in which the temptation of food, or more usually of
drink, has been held out to the wayfarer ; and we have
learned that the result of yielding would be to give
himself wholly into the fairies' hands. I propose now to
examine instances in which temptation of one kind or

12

1^2 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRV TALES.

other has been successful, or in which a spell has been
Cast over man or woman, not merely preventing the
bewitched person from regaining his home and human
society, but also rendering him, while under the spell,
impervious to the attacks of time and unconscious of its
flight.

These stories are of many types. The first type
comes, so far as I know, only from Celtic sources. It
is very widely known in Wales, and we may call it, from
its best-known example, the " Rhys and Llewelyn type."
A story obtained between sixty and seventy years ago in
the Vale of Neath relates that Rhys and Llewelyn were
fellow-servants to a farmer ; and they had been engaged
one day in carrying lime for their master. As they were
going home, driving their mountain ponies before them
in the twilight, Rhys suddenly called to his companion
to stop and listen to the music. It was a tune, he said,
to which he had danced a hundred times, and he must
go and have a dance now. So he told his companion to
go on with the horses and he would soon overtake him.
Llewelyn could hear nothing, and began to remonstrate ;
but away sprang Rhys, and he called after him in vain.
Accordingly he went home, put up the ponies, ate his
supper and went to bsd, thinking that Rhys had only
made a pretext for going to the alehouse. But when
morning came, and still no sign of Rhys, he told his
master what had occurred. Search proving fruitless,
suspicion fell on Llewelyn of having murdered his
fellow-servant ; and he was accordingly imprisoned. A
farmer in the neighbourhood, skilled in fairy matters,
guessing how things might have been, proposed that
himself and some others, including the narrator of the
story, should accompany Llewelyn to the place where he
parted with Rhys. On coming to it, " Hush ! " cried
Llewelyn, UI hear music, I hear sweet harps." All
listened, but could hear nothing. But Llewelyn's foot
was on the outward edge of the fairy-ring. " Put your

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 163

foot on mine, David," he said to the narrator. The
latter did so, and so did each of the party, one after the
other, and then heard the sound of many harps, and saw
within a circle, about twenty feet across, great numbers
of little people dancing round and round. Among them
was Rhys, whom Llewelyn caught by the smock-frock, as
he came by him, and pulled him out of the circle.
" Where are the horses ? where are the horses ? " cried
he. " Horses, indeed ! " said Llewelyn. Rhys urged
him to go home and let him finish his dance, in which
he averred he had not been engaged more than five
minutes. It was only by main force they got him away ;
and the sequel was that he could not be persuaded of the
time that had passed in the dance : he became melan-
choly, took to his bed, and soon after died.1

Variants of this tale are found all over Wales. At
Pwllheli, Professor Rhys was told of two youths who
went out to fetch cattle and came at dusk upon a party
of fairies dancing. One was drawn into the circle ; and
the other was suspected of murdering him, until, at
a wizard's suggestion, he went again to the same spot at
the end of a year and a day. There he found his friend
dancing, and managed to get him out, reduced to a mere
skeleton. The first question put by the rescued man
was as to the cattle he was driving. Again, at Trefriw,
Professor Rhys found a belief that when a young man
got into a fairy-ring the fairy damsels took him away ;
but he could be got out unharmed at the end of a year
and a day, when he would be found dancing with them
in the same ring. The mode of recovery was to touch
him with a piece of iron and to drag him out at once.
We shall consider hereafter the reason for touching the
captive with iron. In this way was recovered, after
the expiration of a year and a day, a youth who had

1 Croker, vol. iii. p. 215. This tale is given by Sikes, p. 70, of
course without any acknowledgment. It is also found in Keightley,
p. 415.

164 THE SCIENCE OP FAIRY TALES.

wandered into a fairy-ring. He had new shoes on at the
time he was lost ; and he could not be made to under-
stand that he had been there more than five minutes
until he was asked to look at his new shoes, which were
by that time in pieces. Near Aberystwyth, Professor
Rhys was told of a servant-maid who was lost while
looking for some calves. Her fellow-servant, a man, was
taken into custody on a charge of murdering her. A
" wise man," however, found out that she was with the
fairies ; and by his directions the servant-man was
successful at the end of the usual period of twelve
months and a day in drawing her out of the fairy-ring
at the place where she was lost. As soon as she was
released and saw her fellow-servant (who Avas carefully
dressed in the same clothes as he had on when she left
him), she asked about the calves. On their way home
she told her master, the servant-man, and the others, that
she would stay with them until her master should strike
her with iron. One day, therefore, when she was help-
ing her master to harness a horse the bit touched her,
and she disappeared instantly and was never seen from
that time forth. In another case, said to have happened
in Anglesea, a girl got into a fairy-circle while looking,
with her father, for a lost cow. By a " wise man's "
advice, however, he rescued her by pulling her out of
the circle the very hour of the night of the anniversary
of his loss. The first inquiry she then made was after
the cow, for she had not the slightest recollection of the
time she had spent with the fairies.1

A ghastly sequel, more frequently found in a type of
the story considered later on, sometimes occurs. In
Carmarthenshire it is said that a farmer going out one
morning very early Avas lost ; nor Avere any tidings heard
of him for more than tAvelve months afterwards, until
one day a man passing by a lonely spot sa\v him dancing,
and spoke to him. This broke the spell ; and the farmer,
1 " Y Cymmrodor," vol. vi. pp. 174, 157, 196, 187.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 165

as if waking out of a dream, exclaimed : " Oh dear !
where are my horses ? " Stepping out of the magical
circle, he fell down and mingled his dust with the earth.
In North Wales a story was generally current a couple of
generations since of two men travelling together who
were benighted in a wood. One of them slept, but the
other fell into the hands of the fairies. With the help
of a wizard's advice, some of his relatives rescued him at
the end of a year. They went to the place where his
companion had missed him, there found him dancing
with the fairies and dragged him out of the ring. The
unfortunate man, imagining it was the same night and
that he was with his companion, immediately asked if it
were not better to go home. He was offered some food,
which he began to eat ; but he had no sooner done so
than he mouldered away. A similar tradition attaches
to a certain yew-tree near Mathafarn in the parish of
Llanwrin. One of two farm-servants Avas lost at that
spot, and found again, a year after, dancing in a fairy-
circle. On being dragged out he was asked if he did not
feel hungry. " No," he replied, " and if I did, have I not
here in my wallet the remains of my dinner that I had
before I felt asleep ? " He did not know that a year had
passed by. His look was like a skeleton ; and as soon as
he had tasted food he too mouldered away.1

In Scotland the story is told without this terrible end.
For example, in Sutherlandshire we learn that a man
who had been with a friend to the town of Lairg to
enter his first child's birth in the session-books, and to
buy a keg of whisky against the christening, sat down to
rest at the foot of the hill of Durcha, near a large hole

1 Howells, pp. 141, 145; Sikes, p. 73. I have not been able to
trace Mr. Sikes' authority for the last story ; but his experience and skill
in borrowing from other books are so much greater than in oral collec-
tion that it is probably from some literary source, though no doubt
many of the embellishments arc his own- The foundation, however,
appears to be traditional.

1 66 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALKS.

from which they soon heard a sound of piping and
dancing. Feeling curious, he entered the cavern, and
disappeared. His friend was accused of murder, but
being allowed a year and a day to vindicate himself, he
used to repair at dusk to the fatal spot and call and pray.
One day before the term ran out, he sat, as usual, in the
gloaming by the cavern, when, Avhat seemed his friend's
shadow passed within it. It was his friend himself,
tripping merrily with the fairies. The accused man
succeeded in catching him by the sleeve and pulling him
out. " Why could you not let me finish my reel,
Sandy ? " asked the bewitched man. " Bless me ! " re-
joined Sandy, u have you not had enough of reeling this
last twelvemonth ? " But the other would not believe in
this lapse of time until he found his wife sitting by the
door with a yearling child in her arms. In Kirkcud-
brightshire, one night about Hallowe'en two young
ploughmen, returning from an errand, passed by an old
ruined mill and heard within music and dancing. One
of them went in ; and nothing was seen of him again
until a year after, when his companion went to the same
place, Bible in hand, and delivered him from the evil
beings into whose power he had fallen.1

The captive, however, does not always require to be
sought for : he is sometimes released voluntarily by his
captors. A man who lived at Ystradgynlais, in Breck-
nockshire, going out one day to look after his cattle and
sheep on the mountain, disappeared. In about three
weeks, after search had been made in vain for him and
his wife had given him up for dead, he came home. His
wife asked him where he had been for the past three
weeks. " Three weeks ! Is it three weeks you call three
hours ? " said he. Pressed to say where he had been, he
told her he had been playing on his flute (which he
usually took with him on the mountain) at the Llorfa, a
spot near the Van Pool, when he was surrounded at a
1 Campbell, vol. ii. pp. 63, 55.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 167

distance by little beings like men, who closed nearer and
nearer to him until they became a very small circle.
They sang and danced, and so affected him that he quite
lost himself. They offered him some small cakes to eat,
of which he partook ; and he had never enjoyed himself
so well in his life. Near Bridgend is a place where a
woman is said to have lived who was absent ten years
with the fairies, and thought she was not out of the house
more than ten minutes. With a woman's proverbial
persistency, she would not believe her husband's as-
surances that it was ten years since she disappeared ; and
the serious disagreement between them which ensued
was so notorious that it gave a name to the place where
they lived. A happier result is believed to have attended
an adventure that foreboded much Averse to a man at
Dornoch, in Sutherlandshire. He was present at a funeral
in the churchyard on New Year's Day, and was so piqued
at not being invited, as all the others were, to some of the
New Year's festivities, that in his vexation, happening to
see a skull lying at his feet, he struck it with his staff and
said : " Thou seemest to be forsaken and uncared-for, like
myself. I have been bidden by none ; neither have I
invited any : I now invite thee ! " That night as he and
his wife were sitting down alone to supper, a venerable
old man entered the room in silence and took his share of
the delicacies provided. In those days the New Year's
feast was kept up for eleven days together ; and the
stranger's visit was repeated in the same absolute silence
for six nights. At last the host, alarmed and uneasy,
sought the priest's advice as to how he was to get rid of
his unwelcome guest. The reverend father bade him, in
laying the bannocks in the basket for the seventh day's
supper, reverse the last-baked one. This, he declared,
would induce the old man to speak. It did ; and the
speech was an invitation — nay, rather a command — to
spend the remainder of the festival with him in the
churchyard. The priest, again consulted, advised com-

1 68 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

pliance ; and the man went trembling to the tryst. He
found in the churchyard a great house, brilliantly
illuminated, where he enjoyed himself, eating, drinking,
piping and dancing. After what seemed the lapse of a
few hours, the grey master of the house came to him,
and bade him hasten home, or his wife would be married
to another ; and in parting he advised him always to
respect the remains of the dead. Scarcely had he done
speaking when the grey old man himself, the guests, the
house, and all that it contained, vanished, leaving the man
to crawl home alone in the moonlight as best he might
after so long a debauch. For he had been absent a year
and a day ; and when he got home he found his wife in a
bride's dress, and the whole house gay with a bridal party.
His entrance broke in upon the mirth : his wife swooned,
and the new bridegroom scrambled up the chimney. But
when she got over her fright, and her husband had
recovered from the fatigue of his year-long dance, they
made it up, and lived happily ever after.1

A story of this type has been elaborated by a Welsh
writer who is known as " Glasynys" into a little romance,
in which the hero is a shepherd lad, and the heroine a fairy
maiden whom he weds and brings home with him. This
need not detain us ; but a more authentic story from the
Vale of Neath may be mentioned. It concerns a boy
called Gitto Bach, or Little Griffith, a farmer's son, who
disappeared. During two whole years nothing was heard
of him ; but at length one morning when his mother,
who had long and bitterly mourned for him as dead,
opened the door, whom should she see sitting on the

1 "F. L. Journal," vol. vi.'p. 191. (This story was told to the present
writer and Mr. G. L. Gomme by Alderman Howel Walters, of Ystrad-
gynlais, who had it from an old man who knew the hero well and gave
implicit credit to the narrative.) " Trans. Aberd. Eistedd." p. 227 ;
" F. L. Journal," vol. vi. p. 183. A similar tale is referred to in Jones'
" Account of the Tarish of Aberystruth," 1779, quoted in "Choice
Notes," p. 157.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 169

threshold but Gitto with a bundle under his arm. He
was dressed and looked exactly as when she last saw him,
for he had not grown a bit. " Where have you been all
this time ? " asked his mother. " Why, it was only yes-
terday I went away," he replied ; and opening the bundle,
he showed her a dress the " little children," as he called
them, had given him for dancing with them. The dress
was of white paper without seam. With maternal caution
she put it into the fire.1

I am not aware of many foreign examples of this type ;
but among the Siberian Tartars their extravagant heroes
sometimes feast overlong with friends as mythical as
themselves. On one occasion

" They caroused, they feasted.
That a month had flown
They knew not ;
That a year had gone by
They knew not.
As a year went by
It seemed like a day ;
As two years went by
It seemed like two days :
As three years went by
It seemed like three days."

Again, when a hero was married the time very naturally
passed rapidly. " One day he thought he had lived
here — he had lived a month ; two days he believed he
had lived — he had lived two months ; three days he
believed he had lived — he had lived three months." And
he was much surprised to learn from his bride how long
it really was, though time seems always to have gone
wrong with him. For after he was born it is recorded
that in one day he became a year old, in two days two
years, and in seven days seven years old ; after which he
performed some heroic feats, ate fourteen sheep and three
cows, and then lying down slept for seven days and seven

1 " Cymru Fu," p. 177 (a translation is given by Professor Rhys in
" Y Cymmrodor/' vol. v. p. 81) ; Croker, vol. iii. p. 208,

170 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

nights — in other words, until he was fourteen years old.
In a Breton tale a girl who goes down underground, to
become godmother to a fairy child, thinks, when she
returns, that she has been away but two days, though in
the meantime her god-child has grown big : she has been
in fact ten years. In a Hessian legend the time of absence
is seven years.1

Turning away from this type, in which pleasure, and
especially the pleasure of music and dancing, is the
motive, let us look at what seem to be some specially
German and Slavonic types of the tale. In the latter it
is rather an act of service (sometimes under compulsion),
curiosity or greed, which leads the mortal into the
mysterious regions where time has so little power. At
Eldena, in Pomerania, are the ruins of a monastery and
church, formerly very wealthy, under which are said to
be some remarkable chambers. Two Capuchin monks
came from Rome many years ago, and inquired of the
head of the police after a hidden door which led under
the ruins. He lent them his servant-boy, who, under
their direction, removed the rubbish and found the door.
It opened at the touch of the monks, and they entered
with the servant. Passing through several rooms they
reached one in which many persons were sitting and
writing. Here they were courteously received ; and after
a good deal of secret conference between the monks and
their hosts, they were dismissed. When the servant
came back to the upper air, he found he had been absent
three whole years. Blanik is the name of a mountain in
Bohemia, beneath which are lofty halls whose walls are
entirely fashioned of rock-crystal. In these halls the
Bohemian hero, the holy King Wenzel, sleeps with a
chosen band of his knights, until some day the utmost
need of his country shall summon him and them to her
aid. A smith, who dwelt near the mountain, was once

1 Radloff, vol. i. p. 95, vol. iv. p. 109 ; Sebillot, " Contes," vcl. ii.
p. 8; Grimm, " Tales," vol. i. p. 162.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 171

mowing his meadow, Avhen a stranger came and bade him
follow him. The stranger led him into the mountain,
where he beheld the sleeping knights, each one upon his
horse, his head bent down upon the horse's neck. His
guide then brought him tools that he might shoe the
horses, but told him to beware in his work of knocking
against any of the knights. The smith skilfully performed
his work, but as he was shoeing the last horse he acci-
dentally touched the rider, who started up, crying out :
<( Is it time ? " " Not yet," replied he who had brought
the smith thither, motioning the latter to keep quiet.
When the task was done, the smith received the old shoes
by way of reward. On returning home he was astonished
to find two mowers at work in his meadow, whereas he
had only left one there. From them he learned that he
had been away a whole year ; and when he opened his
bag, behold the old horse-shoes were all of solid gold !
On Easter Sunday, during mass, the grey horse belonging
to another peasant living at the foot of the Blanik dis-
appeared. While in quest of him the owner found the
mountain open, and, entering, arrived in the hall where
the knights sat round a large table of stone and slept.
Each of them wore black armour, save their chief, who
shone in gold and bore three herons' feathers in his helm.
Ever and anon one or other of the knights would look up
and ask : " Is it time ? " But on their chief shaking his
head he would sink again to rest. While the peasant was
in the midst of his astonishment he heard a neighing
behind him ; and turning round he left the cavern. His
horse was quietly grazing outside ; but when he got home
every one shrank in fright away from him. His wife sat
at the table in deep mourning. On seeing him she
shrieked and asked : " Where have you been for a whole
year ? " He thought he had only been absent a single
hour. A servant-man driving two horses over the Blanik
heard the trampling of steeds and a battle-march played.
It was the knights returning from their mimic combat ;

172 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and the horses he was driving were so excited that he was
compelled to follow with them into the mountain, which
then closed upon them. Nor did he reach home until
ten years had passed away, though he thought it had only
been as many days.1

We shall have occasion to return to Blanik and its
knights. Parallel traditions attach, as is well known, to
the Kyffhauser, a mountain in Thuringia, where Frederick
Barbarossa sleeps.. A peasant going with corn to market
at Nordhausen, drove by the Kyffhauser, where he was
met by a little grey man, who asked him whither he was
going, and offered to reward him if he would accompany
him instead. The little grey man led him through a
great gateway into the mountain till they came at last to
a castle. There he took from the peasant his waggon and
horses, and led him into a hall gorgeously illuminated and
filled with people, where he was well entertained. At
last the little grey man told him it was now time he
went home, and rewarding him bountifully he led him
forth. His waggon and horses were given to him again,
and he trudged homeward well pleased. Arrived there,
however, his wife opened her eyes wide to see him, for he
had been absent a year, and she had long accounted him
dead. It fared not quite so well with a journeyman
joiner from Nordhausen, by name Thiele, who found the
mountain open, as it is every seven years, and went in.
There he saw the Marquis John (whoever he may have
been), with his beard spreading over the table and his
nails grown through it. Around the walls lay great
wine-vats, Avhose hoops and wood had alike rolled away ;
but the wine had formed its own shell and was blood-red.
A little drop remained in the wine-glass which stood
before the Marquis John. The joiner made bold to drain
it off, and thereupon fell asleep. When he awoke again
he had slept for seven years in the mountain.2

1 Jahn, p. 199 ; Grohmann, pp. 19, 20, 18.
* Knhn und Schwartz, pp. 220, 222.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OP TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 173

Curiosity and greed caused this man to lose seven
years of his life. This is a motive often met with in
these stories. A young girl during the midday rest
left a hayfield in the Lavantthal, Carinthia, to climb the
Schonofen, whence there is a fine view over the valley.
As she reached the top she became aware of an open door
in the rock. She entered, and found herself in a cellar-
like room. Two fine black steeds stood at the fodder-
trough and fed off the finest oats. Marvelling how they
got there , she put a few handfuls of the oats into her
pocket, and passed on into a second chamber. A chest
stood there, and on the chest lay a black dog. Near him
was a loaf of bread, in which a knife was stuck. With
ready wit she divined, or recollected, the purpose of the
bread ; and cutting a good slice she threw it to the dog.
While he was busy devouring it she filled her apron from
the treasure contained in the chest. But meantime the
door closed, and there was nothing for it but to lie down
and sleep. She awoke to find the door wide open, and at
once made the best of her way home. But she was not a
little astounded to learn that she had been gone for a
whole year.1

A Lapp tale presents this mysterious lapse of time as
the sequel of an adventure similar to that of Ulysses with
Polyphemus. An old Lapp, having lost his way while
hunting, came to a cottage. The door was open ; and he
entered to remain there the night, and began to cook in
a pot he carried with him the game he had caught that
day. Suddenly a witch entered, and asked him : " What
is your name ? " " Myself," answered the Lapp ; and
taking a spoonful of the boiling liquid he flung it in her
face. She cried out : " Myself has burnt me ! Myself has
burnt me ! " " If you have burnt yourself you ought to
suffer," answered her companion from the neighbouring
mountain. The hunter was thus delivered for the moment
from the witch, who, however, as she went away, ex-
1 Rappolcl, p. 34.

174 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

claimed : " Self has burnt me ; Self shall sleep till the
new year ! " When the Lapp had finished his repast he
lay down to repose. On awaking he rummaged in his
provision-sack : he found its contents mouldy and putrid.
Nor could he understand this before he got home and
learned that he had been missing for six months.1

This story is unlike the previous ones, inasmuch as it
represents the six months' disappearance as in no way
due to any enticements, either of supernatural beings or
of the hero's own passions. Neither music, nor dancing,
neither greed nor curiosity, led him astray. The abori-
ginal inhabitants of Japan in like manner tell of a certain
man who went out in his boat to fish and was carried off
by a storm to an unknown land. The chief, an old man
of divine aspect, begged him to stay there for the night,
promising to send him home to his own country on the
morrow. The promise was fulfilled by his being sent
with some of the old chief's subjects who were going
thither ; but the man was enjoined to lie down in the
boat and cover up his head. When he reached his native
place the sailors threw him into the water ; and ere he
came to himself sailors and boat had disappeared. He
had been away for a whole year ; and the chief appeared
to him shortly afterwards in a dream, revealing himself
as no human being, but the chief of the salmon, the
divine fish ; and he required the man thenceforth to
worship him. Curiously similar to the Japanese tale is
a tale told to M. Sebillot by a cabin-boy of Saint Cast in
Brittany. A fisherman caught one day the king of the
fishes, in the shape of a small gilded fish, but was per-
suaded to let him go under promise to send (such is the
popular belief in the unselfishness of kings) at all times
as many of his subjects as the fisherman wanted into his
nets. The promise was royally fulfilled. More than this,
when the fisherman's boat was once capsized by a storm
the king of the fishes appeared, gave its drowning owner
1 "Archivio," vol. vi. p. 398.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 175

to drink from a bottle he had brought for the purpose,
and conveyed him under the water to his capital, — a
beautiful city whose streets, surpassing those of London
in the traditions of English peasant children, were paved
not only with gold but with diamonds and other gems. The
fisherman promptly filled his pockets with these paving-
stones ; and then the king politely told him : " When
you are tired of being with us, you have only to say so."
There is a limit to hospitality ; so the fisherman took the
hint, and told the king how delighted he should be to
remain there always, but that he had a wife and children
at home who would think he was drowned. The king
called a tunny and commanded him to take the fisherman
on his back and deposit him on a rock near the shore,
where the other fishers could see and rescue him. Then,
with the parting gift of an inexhaustible purse, he dis-
missed his guest. When the fisherman got back to
his village he found he had been away more than
six months. In the chapter on Changelings I had
occasion to refer to some instances of women being
carried off at a critical time in their lives. One more
such instance may be added here. Among the Bohe-
mians a mythical female called Polednice is believed to
be dangerous to women who have recently added to tho
population ; and such women are accordingly warned to
keep within doors, especially at noon and after the
angelus in the evening. On one occasion a woman, who
scorned the warnings she had received, was carried off by
Polednice in the form of a whirlwind, as she sat in the
harvest-field chatting with the reapers, to whom she had
brought their dinner. Only after a year and a day was
she permitted to return.1

In some of the German and Bohemian tales a curious
incident occurs. Beneath the Rollberg, near Niemes, in
Bohemia, is a treasure-vault, the door of which stands

1 " F. L. Journal," vol. vi. p. 33; "Archivio," vol. ix. p. 233
Grolimann, p. 112.

176 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

open for a short time every Palm Sunday. A woman
once found it open thus and entered with her child.
There she saw a number of Knights Templars sitting
round a table, gambling. They did not notice her ; so
she helped herself from a pile of gold lying near them,
having first set down her child. Beside the gold lay a
black dog, which barked from time to time. The woman
knew that the third time it barked the door would close ;
wherefore she hastened out. When she bethought her-
self of the child it was too late : she had left it behind in
her haste, and the vault was closed. The following year
she returned at the hour when the door was open, and
found the little one safe and sound, in either hand a fair
red apple. Frequently in these tales a beautiful lady
comes and ministers to the child during its mother's
absence ; at other times, a man. The treasure of King
Darius is believed to be buried beneath the Sattelburg in
Transylvania. A Wallachian woman, with her yearling
babe in her arms, once found the door open and went in.
There sat an old, long-bearded man, and about him stood
chests full of silver and gold. She asked him if she
might take some of this treasure for herself. " Oh, yes,"
answered he, " as much as you like." She put down the
child and filled her skirts with gold, put the gold outside
and re-entered. Having obtained permission, she filled
and emptied her skirts a second time. But when she
turned to enter a third time the door banged-to, and she
was left outside. She cried out for her child, and wept
— in vain. Then she made her way to the priest and laid
her case before him. He advised her to pray daily for a
whole year, and she would then get her child again. She
carried out his injunction ; and the following year she
went again to the Sattelburg. The door was open, and
she found the babe still seated in the chest where she had
put it down. It was playing with a golden apple, which
it held up to her, crying : " Look, mother, look ! " The
mother was astonished to hear it speak, and asked :

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 177

" Whence hast thou that beautiful apple ? " " From the
old man, who has given me to eat too." The man was,
however, no longer to be seen ; and as the mother took
her child and left the place, the door closed behind her.1

But the most numerous, and assuredly the most weird
and interesting, of these stories belong to a type which we
may call, after the famous Posthumous Writing of Diedrich
Knickerbocker, the " Rip van Winkle type." Here the
hero remains under the spell of the supernatural until he
passes the ordinary term of life ; and he comes back to
find all his friends dead and himself nothing but a dim
memory. It will be needless here to recapitulate the
tale of Rip van Winkle himself. Whether any such
legend really lingers about the Kaatskill mountains I do
not know ; but I have a vehement suspicion that Wash-
ington Irving was indebted rather to Otmar's " Traditions
of the Harz," a book published at Bremen in the year
1800. In this book the scene of the tale is laid on the
Kyffhauser, and with the exception of such embellish-
ments as the keen tongue of Dame van Winkle and a few
others, the incidents in the adventures of Peter Claus the
Goatherd are absolutely the same as those of Rip van
Winkle.2

Of all the variants of this type it is in China that we
find the one most resembling it. Wang Chih, afterwards
one of the holy men of the Taoists, wandering one day in
the mountains of Kii Chow to gather firewood, entered a
grotto in which some aged men were playing at chess.
He laid down his axe and watched their game, in the
course of which one of them handed him something in
size and shape like a date-stone, telling him to put it into
his mouth. No sooner had he done so than hunger and
thirst passed away. After some time had elapsed one of
the players said : " It is long since you came here ; you
should go home now." Wang Chih accordingly pro-

1 Grohmann, pp. 29, 289, 296, 298 ; Miiller, p. 83.

2 See Thorpe's translation of the story, " Yule Tide Stories," p. 475.

13

178 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

ceeded to pick up his axe, but found that its handle had
mouldered into dust ; and on reaching home he became
aware that not hours, nor days, but centuries had passed
since he left it, and that no vestige of his kinsfolk remained.
Another legend tells of a horseman who, riding over the
hills, sees several old men playing a game with rushes.
He ties his horse to a tree while he looks on at them.
In a few minutes, as it seems to him, he turns to depart ;
but his horse is already a skeleton, and of the saddle and
bridle rotten pieces only are left. He seeks his home ;
but that too is gone ; and he lies down and dies broken-
hearted. A similar story is told in Japan of a man who
goes into the mountains to cut wood, and watches two
mysterious ladies playing at chess while seven generations
of mortal men pass away. Both these legends omit the
supernatural food which seems to support life, not only
in the case of Wang Chih, but also in that of Peter
Glaus. In another Chinese tale two friends, wandering
in the T'ien-t'ai mountains, are entertained by two
beautiful girls, who feed them on a kind of haschisch, a
drug made from hemp ; and when they return they find
that they have passed seven generations of ordinary men
in the society of these ladies. Another Taoist devotee
was admitted for a while into the next world, where he
was fed on cakes, and, as if he were a dyspeptic, he received
much comfort from having all his digestive organs
removed. After awhile he was sent back to this world,
to find himself much younger than his youngest grand-
son.1

Feasts in Fairyland occupy an unconscionable length
of time. Walter Map, writing in the latter half of the
twelfth century, relates a legend concerning a mythical
British king, Herla, who was on terms of friendship Avith
the king of the pigmies. The latter appeared to him one
day riding on a goat, a man such as Pan might have been
described to be, with a very large head, a fiery face, and

1 Dennys, p. 98 ; Giles, vol. ii. pp. 89 note, 85 ; Brauns, p. 366.

tttfi SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAlRVLAND. ifg

a long red beard. A spotted fawn-skin adorned his
breast, but the lower part of his body was exposed and
shaggy, and his legs degenerated into goat's feet. This
queer little fellow declared himself very near akin to
Herla, foretold that the king of the Franks was about to
send ambassadors offering his daughter as wife to the
king of the Britons, and invited himself to the wedding.
He proposed a pact between them, that when he had
attended Herla's wedding, Herla should the following
year attend his. Accordingly at Herla's wedding the
pigmy king appears with a vast train of courtiers and
servants, and numbers of precious gifts. The next year
he sends to bid Herla to his own wedding. Herla goes.
Penetrating a mountain cavern, he and his followers
emerge into the light, not of sun or moon, but of
innumerable torches, and reach the pigmies' dwellings,
whose splendour Map compares with Ovid's description
of the palace of the sun. Having given so charming, and
doubtless so accurate, a portrait of the pigmy king, it is a
pity the courtier-like ecclesiastic has forgotten to inform
us what his bride was like. He leaves us to guess that
her attractions must have corresponded with those of her
stately lord, telling us simply that when the wedding was
over, and the gifts which Herla brought had been pre-
sented, he obtained leave to depart, and set out for home,
laden, he too, with gifts, among which are enumerated
horses, dogs, hawks, and other requisites of a handsome
outfit for hunting or fowling. Indeed, the bridegroom
himself accompanied them as far as the darkness of the
cavern through which they had to pass ; and at parting he
added to his presentations that of a bloodhound, so small
as to be carried, forbidding any of the train to alight
anywhere until the hound should leap from his bearer.
When Herla found himself once more within his own
realm he met with an old shepherd, and inquired for
tidings of his queen by name. The shepherd looked at
him astonished, scarcely understanding his speech ; for he

180 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES,

was a Saxon, whereas Herla was a Briton. Nor, as he
told the king, had he heard of such a queen, unless it
were a queen of the former Britons, whose husband,
Herla, was said to have disappeared at yonder rock with
a dwarf, and never to have been seen again. That, how-
ever, was long ago, for it was now more than two hun-
dred years since the Britons had been driven out and the
Saxons had taken possession of the land. The king was
stupefied, for he deemed he had only been away three
days, and could hardly keep his seat. Some of his
followers, forgetful of the pigmy king's prohibition,
alighted without waiting for the dog to lead the way, and
were at once crumbled into dust. Herla and those who
were wiser took warning by the fate of their companions.
One story declared that they were wandering still ; and
many persons asserted that they had often beheld the
host upon its mad, its endless journey. But Map con-
cludes that the last time it appeared was in the year of
King Henry the Second's coronation, when it was seen
by many Welshmen to plunge into the Wye in Hereford-
shire.1

Cases in which dancing endures for a whole twelve-
month have already been mentioned. This might be
thought a moderate length of time for a ball, even for a
fairy ball ; but some have been known to last longer.
Two celebrated fiddlers of Strathspey were inveigled by a
venerable old man, who ought to have known better, into
a little hill near Inverness, where they supplied the
music for a brilliant assembly which lasted in fact for a
hundred years, though to them it seemed but a few hours.
They emerged into daylight again on a Sunday ; and
when they had learned the real state of affairs, and
recovered from their astonishment at the miracle which
had been wrought in them, they went, as was meet, to
church. They sat listening for awhile to the ringing of
the bells ; but when the clergyman began to read the
1 Map, Dist. i. c. II. But see below, p. 234.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 1 8 1

gospel, at the first word he uttered they both fell into
dust. This is a favourite form of the legend in Wales as
well as Scotland ; but, pathetic and beautiful as the various
versions are, they present no variations of importance.1

Often the stranger's festive visit to Fairyland is rounded
with a sleep. We have seen this in the instance of Rip van
Winkle. Another legend has been put into literary form
by Washington Irving, this time from a Portuguese
source. It relates the adventures of a noble youth who
set out to find an island in which some of the former
inhabitants of the Peninsula had taken refuge at the
time of the Moorish conquest, and where their descend-
ants still dwelt. The island was believed to contain
seven cities ; and the adventurer was appointed by the
king of Portugal Adalantado, or governor, of the Seven
Cities. He reached the island, and was received as
Adalantado, was feasted, and then fell asleep. When he
came to himself again he was on board a homeward-
bound vessel, having been picked up senseless from a
drifting wreck. He reached Lisbon, but no one knew
him. His ancestral mansion was occupied by others :
none of his name had dwelt in it for many a year. He
hurried to his betrothed, only to fling himself, not, as he
thought, at her feet, but at the feet of her great-grand-
daughter. In cases like this the supernatural lapse of
time may be conceived as taking place during the
enchanted sleep, rather than during the festivities.
According to a Coptic Christian romance, Abimelek, the
youthful favourite of King Zedekiah, preserved the pro-
phet Jeremiah's life when he was thrown into prison, and
afterwards persuaded his master to give him charge of
the prophet, and to permit him to release him from the
dungeon. In reward, Jeremiah promised him that he
should never see the destruction of Jerusalem, nor
experience the Babylonish captivity, and yet that he

1 Croker, vol. iii. p. 17; Howells, p. 123; "Y Cymmrodor," vol.
iv. p. 196, vol. v. pp. 108, 113.

182 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

should not die. The sun should take carj of him, the
atmosphere nourish him ; the earth on which he slept
should give him repose, and he should taste of joy for
seventy years until he should again see Jerusalem in its
glory, flourishing as before. Accordingly, going out one
day, as his custom was, into the royal garden to gather
grapes and figs, God caused him to rest and fall asleep
beneath the shadow of a rock. There he lay peacefully
slumbering while the city was besieged by Nebuchad-
nezzar, and during the horrors of its capture and the
whole of the seventy sad years that followed. When he
awoke, it was to meet the prophet Jeremiah returning
from the captivity, and he entered the restored city with
him in triumph. But the seventy years had seemed to him
but a few hours ; nor had he known anything of what
passed while he slumbered. Mohammed in the Koran
mentions a story referred by the commentators to Ezra.
He is represented as passing by a village (said to mean
Jerusalem) when it was desolate, and saying : "How will
God revive this after its death ? " And God made him
die for a hundred years. Then He raised him and asked :
" How long hast thou tarried ? " Said the man : " I have
tarried a day, or some part of a day." But God said :
" Nay, thou hast tarried a hundred years. Look at thy
food and drink, they are not spoiled ; and look at thine
ass ; for we will make thee a sign to men. And look at
the bones, how we scatter them and then clothe them
with flesh." And when it was made manifest to him, he
said : " I know that God is mighty over all." r

Mohammed probably was unconscious that this is to all
intents and purposes the same story as that of the Seven
Sleepers, to which he refers in the chapter on the Cave.
Some of the phrases he uses are, indeed, identical. As

1 " Wolfert's Roost, and other Sketches," by Washington Irving
(London, 1855) p. 225; Amelineau, vol. ii. p. in; Koran, c. 2
(" Sacred Books of the East," vol. vi. p. 41) ; " Ma.snavi i Ma'navi,"
p. 214.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 183

usually told, this legend speaks of seven youths of Ephesus
who had fled from the persecutions of the heathen
emperor Decius, and taken refuge in a cave, where they
slept for upwards of three hundred years. In Mohammed's
time, however, it should be noted, the number of the
sleepers was undetermined ; they were credited with a
dog who slept with them, like Ezra's ass ; and Mohammed's
notion of the time they slept was only one hundred years.
One of the wild tribes on the northern frontier of
Afghanistan is said to tell the following story concerning
a cavern in the Hirak Valley, known as the cave of the
Seven Sleepers. A king bearing the suspicious name of
Dakianus, deceived by the devil, set himself up as a god.
Six of his servants, however, having reason to think that
his claim was unfounded, fled from him and fell in with a
shepherd, who agreed to throw in his lot with theirs and
to guide them to a cavern where they might all hide.
The shepherd's dog followed his master ; but the six
fugitives insisted on his being driven back lest he should
betray their whereabouts. The shepherd begged that he
might go with them, as he had been his faithful com-
panion for years ; but in vain. So he struck the dog
with his stick, breaking one of his legs. The dog still
followed ; and the shepherd repeated the blow, breaking
a second leg. Finding that the dog continued to crawl
after them notwithstanding this, the men were struck
with pity and took it in turns to carry the poor animal.
Arrived at the cave, they all lay down and slept for three
hundred and nine years. Assuming the genuineness of the
tradition, which perhaps rests on no very good authority,
its form is obviously due to Mohammedan influence. But
the belief in this miraculous sleep is traceable beyond
Christian and Mohammedan legends into the Paganism
of classical antiquity. Pliny, writing in the first century
of our era, alludes to a story told of the Cretan poet
Epimenides, who, when a boy, fell asleep in a cave, and
continued in that state for fifty-seven years. On waking

184 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

he was greatly surprised at the change in the appearance
of everything around him, as he thought he had only
slept for a few hours ; and though he did not, as in the
Welsh and Scottish tales, fall into dust, still old age came
upon him in as many days as the years he had passed in
slumber.1

Nor is it only in dancing, feasting, or sleeping that the
time passes quickly with supernatural folk. A shepherd
at the foot of the Blanik, who missed one of his flock,
followed it into a cavern, whence he could not return
because the mountain closed upon him with a crash. A
dwarf came and led him into a large hall. There he saw
King Wenzel sleeping with his knights. The king
awoke, and bade him stay and clean the armour. One
day — perhaps the criticism would be too carping which
inquired how he knew the day from the night — he
received permission to go, and a bag which he was told
contained his reward. When he reached the light of day,
he opened the bag and found it rilled with oats. In the
village all was changed, for he had been a hundred years
in the mountain, and nobody knew him. He succeeded
in getting a lodging, and on again opening his bag, lo !
all the grains of oats had turned to gold pieces and thalers,
so that he was able to buy a fine house, and speedily
became the richest man in the place. This was a plea-
santer fate than that of the Tirolese peasant who followed
his herd under a stone, where they had all disappeared.
He presently came into a lovely garden ; and there a lady
came, and, inviting him to eat, offered to take him as
gardener. He readily assented ; but after some weeks he
began to be homesick, and, taking leave of his mistress,
went home. On arriving there he was astounded
that he knew no one, and no one knew him, save an old

1 Koran, c. 18 ("Sacred Books of the East," vol. ix. p. 14);
" Indian N. and Q." vol. iv. p. 8, quoting the " Pall Mall Gazette "
(The story of the Seven Sleepers is also localized at N'gaous in Algeria ;
Certeux et Carnoy, vol. i. p. 63.) Pliny, " Nat. Hist." 1. vii. c. 33.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 185

crone, who at length came to him and said : " Where
have you been ? I have been looking for you for two
hundred years." Thus saying, she took him by the hand
and he fell dead ; for the crone who had sought him so
long was Death.1

Save in the legends that tell of a mother leaving her
child in the mountain from her eagerness to gather
treasure, we have encountered but few instances of
women being beguiled. They are, indeed, not so
numerous as those where the sterner sex is thus over-
come ; nor need we be detained by most of them. A
Danish tradition, however, runs that a bride, during the
dancing and festivities of her Avedding-day, left the room
and thoughtlessly walked towards a mound where the
elves were also making merry. The hillock was standing,
as is usual on such occasions, on red pillars ; and as she
drew near, one of the company offered her a cup of
wine. She drank, and then suffered herself to join in
a dance. When the dance was over she hastened
home. But alas ! house, farm, everything was changed.
The noise and mirth of the wedding was stilled. No
one knew her ; but at length, on hearing her lamenta-
tion, an old woman exclaimed : " Was it you, then, who
disappeared at my grandfather's brother's wedding, a
hundred years ago?" At- these words the aged bride
fell down and expired. A prettier, if not a more pathetic,
story is widely current on the banks of the Rhine. A
maiden who bore an excellent character for piety and
goodness was about to be married. She was fond of
roses ; and on the wedding morning she stepped into
the garden to gather a small bunch. There she met a
man whom she did not know. He admired two lovely
blossoms which she had, but said he had many finer in
his garden : would she not go with him ? "I cannot,"
she said ; " I must go to the church : it is high time."
" It is not far," urged the stranger. The maiden allowed
1 Grohmann, p. 16 j Schneller, p. 217.

1 86 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

herself to be persuaded ; and the man showed her beautiful,
beautiful flowers — finer she had never seen — and gave her
a wonderful rose of which she was very proud. Then
she hastened back, lest she should be too late. When
she mounted the steps of the house she could not under-
stand what had happened to her. Children whom she
knew not were playing there : people whom she did not
recognize were within. And every one ran away from
her, frightened to see a strange woman in an antiquated
wedding-dress stand there bitterly weeping. She had
but just left her bridegroom to go for a moment into the
garden, and in so short a time guests and bridegroom
had all vanished. She asked after her bridegroom, and
nobody knew him. At last she told her story to the
folk around her. A man said he had bought the house,
and knew nothing at all of her bridegroom or her
parents. They took her to the parish priest. He reached
his church-books down, and there he found recorded that
almost two hundred years before, a certain bride on the
wedding-day had disappeared from her father's house.
Burdened thus with two centuries of life, she lingered
on a few lonely years, and then sank into the grave ;
and the good, simple villagers whisper that the strange
gardener was no other than the Lord Jesus, who thus
provided for His humble child an escape from a union
which would have been the source of bitterest woe.
After this it is almost an anti-climax to refer to a Scottish
tale in which a bridegroom was similarly spirited away.
As he was leaving the church after the ceremony, a tall
dark man met him and asked him to come round to the
back of the church, for he wanted to speak to him.
When he complied, the dark man asked him to be good
enough to stand there until a small piece of candle he
held in his hand should burn out. He good-humouredly
complied. The candle took, as he thought, less than two
minutes to burn ; and he then rushed off to overtake
his friends. On his way he saw a man cutting turf,

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 187

and asked if it were long since the wedding party had
passed. The man replied that he did not know that
any wedding party had passed that way to-day, or for
a long time. " Oh, there was a marriage to-day," said
the other, " and I am the bridegroom. I was asked by
a man to go with him to the back of the church, and
I went. I am now running to overtake the party."
The turf-cutter, feeling that this could not be, asked
him what date he supposed that day was. The bride-
groom's answer was in fact two hundred years short of
the real date : he had passed two centuries in those two
minutes Avhich the bit of candle took, as he thought, to
burn. " I remember," said he who cut the turf, " that
my grandfather used to tell something of such a disappear-
ance of a bridegroom, a story which his grandfather told
him as a fact which happened when he was young."
" Ah, well then, I am the bridegroom," sighed the
unfortunate man, and fell away as he stood, until nothing
remained but a small heap of earth.1

Every reader of Longfellow loves the story of the Monk
Felix, so exquisitely told in "The Golden Legend." Its
immediate source I do not know ; but it is certain that
the tradition is a genuine one, and has obtained a local
habitation in many parts of Europe. Southey relates
it as attached to the Spanish convent of San Salvador
de Villar, where the tomb of the Abbot to whom the
adventure happened was shown. And he is very severe
on " the dishonest monks who, for the honour of their
convent and the lucre of gain, palmed this lay (for such
in its origin it was) upon their neighbours as a true
legend." In Wales, the ruined monastery at Clynnog-
Fawr, on the coast of Carnarvonshire, founded by St.
Beuno, the uncle of the more famous St. Winifred, has

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 138; Birlingcr, "Volkst. " vol. i. p. 257 (cf.
Bartsch, vol. i. p. 326, where there is no wedding, and curiosity is the
lady's motive for venturing into the fairy cavern) ; " Celtic Mag." Oct.
1887, p. 566.

1 88 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

been celebrated by a Welsh antiquary as the scene of
the same event, in memory whereof a woodland patch
near Clynnog is said to be called Llwyn-y-Nef, the
Grove of Heaven. At Pantshonshenkin, in Carmarthen-
shire, a youth went out early one summer's morning
and was lost. An old woman, Catti Madlen, prophesied
of him that he was in the fairies' power and would not
be released until the last sap of a certain sycamore tree
had dried up. When that time came he returned. He
had been listening all the while to the singing of a bird,
and supposed only a few minutes had elapsed, though
seventy years had in fact gone over his head. In the
Mabinogi of Bran wen, daughter of Llyr, Pryderi and his
companions, while bearing the head of Bran the Blessed,
to bury it in the White Mount in London, were enter-
tained seven years at Harlech, feasting and listening to
the singing of the three birds of Rhiannon — a mythical
figure in whom Professor Rhys can hardly be wrong in
S3eing an old Celtic goddess. In Germany and the Nether-
lands the story is widely spread. At the abbey of Afflig-
hem, Fulgentius, who was abbot towards the close of the
eleventh century, received the announcement one day
that a stranger monk had knocked at the gate and
claimed to be one of the brethren of that cloister. His
story was that he had sung matins that morning with
the rest of the brotherhood ; and when they came to
the verse of the goth Psalm where it is said : "A
thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday," he
had fallen into deep meditation, and continued sitting
in the choir when the others had departed, and that a
little bird had then appeared to him and sung so sweetly
that he had followed it into the forest, whence, after a
short stay, he had now returned, but found the abbey
so changed that he hardly knew it. On questioning him
about his abbot and the name of the king whom he
supposed to be still reigning, Fulgentius found that both
had been dead for three hundred years. The same tale

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 189

is told of other monasteries. In Transylvania it is told
concerning a student of the school at Kronstadt that he
was to preach on the fifteenth Sunday after Trinity in
St. John's Church, now known as the Church of the
Franciscans, and on the Saturday previous he walked
out on the Kapellenberg to rehearse his sermon. After
he had learned it he saw a beautiful bird, and tried to
catch it. It led him on and on into a cavern, where he
met a dwarf, who showed the astonished and curious
student all the wealth of gold and jewels stored up in
the vaults of the mountain. When he escaped again
to the upper air the trees and the houses were altered ;
other and unknown faces greeted him at the school ; his
own room was changed — taken by another ; a different
rector ruled ; and in short a hundred years had elapsed
since he had gone forth to study his sermon for the
next day. The old record-book, bound in pigskin, re-
posed on the rector's shelves. He took it down : it
contained an entry of the student's having quitted the
school and not returned, and of the difficulty caused
thereby at St. John's Church, where he was to have
preached the following day. By the time the entry was
found and the mystery solved, it was noon. The student
was hungry with his hundred-years' fast ; and he sat
down with the others at the common table to dine.
But he had no sooner tasted the first spoonful of soup
than his whole frame underwent a change. From a
ruddy youth he became an old man in the last stage
of decrepitude. His comrades scarce had time to hurry
him upon a bed ere he breathed his last. Some pretty
verses, attributed to Alaric A. Watts, commemorate a
similar incident, said to have happened to two sisters
who were nuns at Beverley Minister. They disappeared
one evening after vespers. After some months they
were found in a trance in the north tower. On being
aroused they declared they had been admitted into
Paradise, whither they would return before morning.

1 90 I'toE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALE§.

They died in the night ; and the beautiful monument
called the Sisters' Shrine still witnesses to the truth of
their story.1

From monastic meditations we may pass without any
long interval to a type of the story that perhaps appears
at its best in M. Luzel's charming collection of distinctively
Christian traditions of Lower Brittany. In this type we
are given the adventures of a youth who undertakes to
carry a letter to " Monsieur le Bon DICIL " in Paradise.
Proceeding by the directions of a hermit, he is guided by
a ball to the hermit's brother, who points out the road and
describes the various difficulties through which he will
have to pass. Accordingly he climbs the mountain before
him ; and the path then leads him across an arid meadow
filled with fat cattle, and next over a lush pasture tenanted
only by lean and sickly kine. Having left this behind
he enters an avenue where, under the trees, youths and
damsels richly clad are feasting and making merry ; and
they tempt the traveller to join them. The path then
becomes narrow and steep, and encumbered with brambles
and nettles and stones. Here he meets a rolling fire, but
standing firm in the middle of the path, the fire passes
harmlessly over his head. Hardly has it gone by, how-
ever, when he hears a terrible roar behind him, as though
the sea in all its fury were at his heels ready to engulf
him. He resolutely refuses to look back ; and the noise
subsides. A thick hedge of thorns closes the way before
him ; but he pushes through it, only to fall into a ditch
filled with nettles and brambles on the other side, where
he faints svith loss of blood. When he recovers and
scrambles out of the ditch, he reaches a place filled with

1 Southey, "Doctor," p. 574; "V Brython," vol. iii. p. Ill, and
Cymru Fu, p. 183; Howells, p. 127; "Y Llyvyr Coch," p. 40
(Lady Charlotte Guest's translation, p. 381) ; Thorpe, vol. iii. p.
297, quoting Wolf; Miiller, p. 50 (cf. Jahn, p. 96). The reader will not
fail to remark the record-book bound in pigskin as a resemblance in
detail to Longfellow's version. Thorpe alludes in a note to a German,
poem by Wegener, which I have not seen. Nicholson, p. 58.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 191

the sweet perfume of flowers, with butterflies, and with
the melody of birds. A clear river waters this beautiful
land ; and there he sits upon a stone and bathes his cruelly
torn feet. No wonder he falls asleep and dreams that he
is already in Paradise. Awaking, he finds his strength
restored, and his wounds healed. Before him is Mount
Calvary, the Saviour still upon the cross, and the blood
yet running from His body. A crowd of little children
are trying to climb the mountain ; but ere they reach the
top they roll down again continually to the foot, only to
recommence the toil. They crowd round the traveller,
and beseech him to take them with him ; and he takes
three, one on each shoulder and one by the hand ; but
with them he cannot get to the top, for he is hurled back
again and again. Leaving them therefore behind, he
climbs with ease, and throws himself at the foot of the
cross to pray and weep. On rising, he sees before him a
palace that proves to be Paradise itself. St. Peter, the
celestial porter, receives his letter and carries it to its
destination. While the youth waits, he finds St. Peter's
spectacles on the table and amuses himself by trying them
on. Many and marvellous are the things they reveal to
him ; but the porter comes back, and he hastily takes off
the glasses, fearing to be scolded. St. Peter, however,
tells him : "Fear nothing, my child. You have already
been looking through my glasses for five hundred years ! "
" But I have only just put them on my nose ! " " Yes,
my child," returned the door-keeper, " it is five hundred
years, and I see you find the time short." After this it
is a trifle that he spends another hundred years looking
at the seat reserved for himself in Paradise and thinks
them only a moment. The Eternal Father's reply to
the letter is handed to him ; and since his master and the
king who sent him on the errand have both long been
dead and in Paradise (though on lower seats than that
which he is to occupy), he is bidden to take the reply to
his parish prices. The priest will in return hand him a

192 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

hundred crowns, which he is to give to the poor, and
when the last penny has been distributed he will die and
enter Paradise, to obtain the seat he has been allowed to
see. As he makes his way back, one of the hermits
explains to him the various sights he beheld and the
difficulties he conquered during his outward journey. I
shall not stop to unveil the allegories of this traditional
Pilgrim's Progress, which is known from Brittany to
Transylvania, from Iceland to Sicily. Other Breton tales
exist, describing a similar journey, in all of which the
miraculous lapse of time is an incident. In one the
youth is sent to the sun to inquire why it is red in the
morning when it rises. In another a maiden is married
to a mysterious stranger, who turns out to be Death.
Her brother goes to visit her, and is allowed to accompany
her husband on his daily flight, in the course of which he
sees a number of remarkable sights, each one of them a
parable.1

A story is told at Glienke, near New Brandenburg, of
two friends who made mutual promises to attend one
another's weddings. One was married, and his friend
kept his word ; but before the latter's turn to marry
came the married man had fallen into want, and under
the pressure of need had committed robbery, a crime for
which he had been hanged. Shortly afterwards his friend
was about to be married ; and his way a few days before,
in the transaction of his business, led him past the
gallows where the body still swung. As he drew near
he murmured a Paternoster for the dead man, and said :
" At your wedding I enjoyed myself ; and you promised
me to come to mine, and now you cannot come ! " A

1 Luzel, " Legendes Chret." vol. i. pp. 225, 216, 247, 249;
" Contes," vol. i. pp. 14, 40; cf. Pitre, vol. vi. p. I ; and
Gonzenbach, vol. ii. p. 171, in neither of which the lapse of time is an
incident. Dr. Fitre says that the tale has no analogues (ri scant ri)
outside Sicily ; by which I understand him to mean that it has not been
hitherto found in any other Italian-speaking land.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 193

voice from the gallows distinctly replied : " Yes, I will
come." To the wedding feast accordingly the dead man
came, with the rope round his neck, and was placed
between the pastor and the sacristan. He ate and drank in
silence, and departed. As he left, he beckoned the bride-
groom to follow him ; and when they got outside the
village the hanged man said : " Thanks to your Pater-
noster, I am saved." They walked a little further, and
the bridegroom noticed that the country was unknown
to him. They were in a large and beautiful garden.
" Will you not return ? " asked the dead man ; " they will
miss you." " Oh ! let me stay ; it is so lovely here,"
replied his friend. u Know that we are in Paradise ; you
cannot go with me any further. Farewell ! " So saying
the dead man vanished. Then the bridegroom turned
back ; but he did not reach the village for three days.
There all was changed. He asked after his bride : no one
knew her. He sought the pastor and found a stranger.
When he told his tale the pastor searched the church-
books and discovered that a man of his name had been
married one hundred and fifty years before. The bride-
groom asked for food ; but when he had eaten it he sank
into a heap of ashes at the pastor's feet. The Transyl-
vanian legend of u The Gravedigger in Heaven " also turns
upon an invitation thoughtlessly given to a dead man
and accepted. The entertainment is followed by a
counter-invitation ; and the gravedigger is forced to pay a
return visit. He is taken to Heaven, where, among other
things, he sees at intervals three leaves fall slowly one
after another from off a large tree in the garden. The
tree is the Tree of Life, from which a leaf falls at the end
of every century. He was three hundred years in Heaven
and thought it scarce an hour. The Icelandic version
concerns a wicked priest. His unjust ways are reproved
by a stranger who takes him to the place of joy and the
place of torment, and shows him other wonderful things
such as the youth in the Breton tale is permitted to

14

194 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

behold. When he is brought back, and the stranger
leaves him, he finds that he has been absent seven years,
and his living is now held by another priest.1

Here, perhaps, is a fitting place to mention the Happy
Islands of Everlasting Life as known to Japanese tradition,
though the story can hardly be said to belong to the type
we have just discussed, — perhaps not strictly to any of
the foregoing types. A Japanese hero, the wise Vasobiove,
it was who succeeded in reaching the Happy Islands, and
in returning to bring sure tidings of them. For, like St.
Brendan's Isle in western lore, these islands may be
visible for a moment and afar off to the seafarer, but a
mortal foot has hardly ever trodden them. Vasobiove,
however, in his boat alone, set sail from Nagasaki, and, in
spite of wind and waves, landed on the green shore of
Horaisan. Two hundred years he sojourned there ;
yet wist he not how long the period was, there where
everything remained the same, where there was neither
birth nor death, Avhere none heeded the flight of time.
With dance and music, in intercourse with wise men and
lovely women, his days passed away. But at length he
grew weary of this sweet round of existence : he longed
for death — an impossible wish in a land where death was
unknown. No poison, no deadly weapons were to be
found. To tumble down a chasm, or to fling oneself on
sharp rocks was no more than a fall upon a soft cushion.
If he would drown himself in the sea, the water refused
its office, and bore him like a cork. Weary to death the
poor Vasobiove could find no help. In this need a
thought struck him : he caught and tamed a giant stork
and taught him to carry him. On the back of this bird
he returned over sea and land to his beloved Japan,
bringing the news of the realm of Horaisan. His story
took hold of the hearts of his fellow-countrymen ; and
that the story-tellers might never forget it, it has been

1 Bartsch, vol. i. p. 282 ; Miiller, p. 46 ; Powell and Magnusson,
vol. ii. p. 37.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 1 95

emblazoned by the painters in a thousand ways. Nor
can the stranger go anywhere in Japan without seeing the
old, old man depicted on his stork and being reminded of
his voyage to the Happy Islands.1

1 Brauns, p. 146.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND

(continued}.

Ossian in the Tir na n'Og — The Island of Happiness — The Mermaid
— Thomas of Erceldoune — Olger the Dane — The Sleeping Hero
— King Arthur — Don Sebastian — The expected deliverer — British
variants — German variants — Frederick Barbarossa — Nameless
heroes — Slavonic variants.

THE stories we have hitherto considered, relating to the
supernatural lapse of time in fairyland, have attributed
the mortal's detention there to various motives. Com-
pulsion on the part of the superhuman powers, and
pleasure, curiosity, greed, sheer folly, as also the per-
formance of just and willing service on the part of the
mortal, have been among the causes of his entrance
thither and his sojourn amid its enchantments.
Human nature could hardly have been what it is if
the supreme passion of love had been absent from the
list. Nor is it wanting, though not found in the same
plenteous measure that will meet us when we come to
deal with the Swan-maiden myth — that is to say, with
the group of stories concerning the capture by men of
maidens of superhuman birth.

We may take as typical the story of Oisin, or Ossian,
as told in Ireland. In County Clare it is said that once
when he was in the full vigour of youth Oisin lay down
under a tree to rest and fell asleep. Awaking with a
start, he saw a lady richly clad, and of more than mortal
beauty, gazing on him. She_was the Queen of Tir na

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 197

n'Og, the Country of Perpetual Youth. She had fallen
in love with Oisin, as the strange Italian lady is said to
have done with a poet of whose existence we are some-
what better assured than of Oisin's ; and she invited
him to accompany her to her own realm and share her
throne. Oisin was not long in making up his mind, and
all the delights of Tir na n'Og were laid at his feet. In
one part of the palace garden, however, was a broad flat
stone, on which he was forbidden to stand, under penalty
of the heaviest misfortune. Probably, as is usual in
these cases, if he had not been forbidden, he would
never have "thought of standing on it. But one day
finding himself near it, the temptation to transgress was
irresistible. He yielded, and stepping on the stone he
found himself in full view of his native land, the very
existence of which he had forgotten till that moment.
Even in the short space of time since he left it much
had changed : it was suffering from oppression and
violence. Overcome with grief, he hastened to the
queen and prayed for leave to go back, that he might
help his people. The queen tried to dissuade him, but
in vain. She asked him how long he supposed he had
been absent. Oisin told her : "Thrice seven days." She
replied that three times thrice seven years had passed
since he arrived in Tir na n'Og ; and though Time could
not enter that land, it would immediately assert its
dominion over him if he left it. At length she
persuaded him to promise that he would return to his
country for one day only, and then come back to dwell
with her for ever. She accordingly gave him a beautiful
jet-black horse, from whose back he was on no account
to alight, or at all events not to allow the bridle to fall
from his hand ; and in parting she gifted him with
wisdom and knowledge far surpassing that of men.
Mounting the steed, he soon found himself near his
former home ; and as he journeyed he met a man driving
a horse, across whose back was thrown a sack of corn.

198 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

The sack had fallen a little aside ; and the man asked
Oisin to assist him in balancing it properly. Oisin,
good-naturedly stooping, caught it and gave it such a
heave that it fell over on the other side. Annoyed at
his ill-success, he forgot his bride's commands, and sprang
from the horse to lift the sack from the ground, letting
go the bridle at the same time. Forthwith the steed
vanished ; and Oisin instantly became a blind, feeble,
helpless old man — everything lost but the wisdom and
knowledge bestowed upon him by his immortal bride.1

A variant adds some particulars, from which it appears
that Oisin was not only husband of the queen, but also
rightful monarch of Tir na n'Og. For in that land was
a strange custom. The office of king was the prize of a
race every seven years. Oisin's predecessor had con-
sulted a Druid as to the length of his own tenure, and
had been told that he might keep the crown for ever
unless his son-in-law took it from him. Now the king's
only daughter was the finest woman in Tir na n'Og, or
indeed in the world ; and the king naturally thought
that if he could so deform his daughter that no one
would wed her he would be safe. So he struck her with
a rod of Druidic spells, which turned her head into a
pig's head. This she was condemned to wear until she
could marry one of Fin Mac Cumhail's sons in Erin.
The young lady, therefore, went in search of Fin Mac
Cumhail's sons ; and having chosen Oisin she found an
opportunity to tell him her tale, with the result that he
wedded her without delay. The same moment her
deformity was gone, and her beauty as perfect as before
she was enchanted. Oisin returned to Tir na n'Og with
her ; and on the first race for the crown he won so easily
that no man ever cared to dispute it with him afterwards.
So he reigned for many a year, until one day the longing
seized him to go to Erin and see his father and his men.
His wife told him that if he set foot in Erin he would.
1 "Choice Notes," p. 94.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 199

never come back to her, and he would become a blind
old man ; and she asked him how long he thought it
was since he came to Tir na n'Og. u About three years,"
he replied. u It is three hundred years," she said. How-
ever, if he must go she would give him a white steed to
bear him ; but if he dismounted, or touched the soil of
Erin with his foot, the steed would return that instant,
and he would be left a poor old man. This inevitable
catastrophe occurred in his eagerness to blow the great
horn of the Fenians, in order to summon his friends
around him. His subsequent adventures with Saint
Patrick, interesting though they are, are unimportant for
our present purpose.1

Perhaps the nearest analogue to this is the Italian
Swan-maiden marchcn, of the Island of Happiness.
There a youth sets out to seek Fortune, and finds her in
the shape of a maiden bathing, whose clothes he steals,
obtaining possession thereby of her book of command,
and so compelling her to wed him. But in his absence
his mother gives her the book again, which enables her
to return to her home in the Island of Happiness. Thither
her husband goes to seek her, and after a variety of
adventures he is re-united to her. All goes smoothly
until he desires to visit his mother, supposing that he
had only been in the island for two months, whereas in
fact he has been there two hundred years. Fortune,
finding he was bent on going, was more prudent than
the queen of Tir na n'Og, for she went with him on the
magic horse. In their way they met with a lean woman
who had worn out a carriage-load of shoes in travelling.
She feigned to fall to the ground to see if Fortune's
husband would lift her up. But Fortune cried out to
him : " Beware ! that is Death ! " A little further on
they met a devil in the guise of a great lord riding a

1 Curtin, p. 327. See also Kennedy, p. 240, and " F. L. Record,"
vol. ii. p. 15, where the late Mr. H. C. Coote quotes the " Transactions
of the Ossianic Society."

200 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

horse whose legs were worn out with much running.
He also fell from his horse. This was another trap for
Fortune's husband ; but again she cried out to him :
" Beware ! " Then, having reached his own neighbour-
hood and satisfied himself that no one knew him, and
that none even of the oldest remembered his mother, he
allowed his wife to lead him back to the Island of Happi-
ness, where he still dwells with her.1

In an Annamite saga a certain king wished to build a
town on a site he had fixed upon. All at once a tree
bearing an unknown foliage and strange flowers sprang
up on the spot. It was determined to offer these flowers
to the king ; and sentinels were placed to see that no
one plucked the blossoms. A rock still pointed out in
the north of Annam was the home of a race of genii.
A young and lovely maiden belonging to that race
visited the tree, and was unlucky enough to touch one
of the flowers and to cause it to drop. She was at once
seized by the guards, but was released at the intercession
of a certain mandarin. The mandarin's heart was
susceptible : he fell in love with her, and, pursuing her,
he was' admitted into the abodes of the Immortals and
received by the maiden of his dreams. His happiness
continued until the day when it was his lady's turn to
be in attendance on the queen of the Immortals. Ere
she left him she warned him against opening the back
door of the palace where they dwelt, otherwise he would
be compelled to return home, and his present abode
would be forbidden to him from that moment. He
disobeyed her. On opening the door he beheld once
more the outside world, and his family came to his

1 Comparetti, vol. i. p. 212. An English version is given by Mr.
Coote, " F. L. Record," vol. ii. p. 12. Madame D'Aulnoy gives a similar
story in her " Histoire d'Hypolite, Comte de Douglas," which seems
to be the original of a tale in verse quoted by Mr. Baring-Gould from
Dodsley's " Poetical Collection." See " F. L. Record," vol. ii. p. 8 ;
Baring-Gould, p. 547.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 2Ol

remembrance. The Immortals who were within ear-
shot drove him out, and forbade him to return. He
thought he had only been there a few days, but he could
no longer find his relatives. No one knew the name he
asked for. At last an old man said : " There existed
once, under the reign of I do not now remember what
sovereign, an old mandarin of the name, but you would
have some difficulty in finding him, for he has been dead
three or four hundred years." An Esthonian tale repre-
sents a mermaid, the daughter of the Water-Mother, as
falling in love with a loutish boy, the youngest son of a
peasant, and taking him down to dwell with her as her
husband in her palace beneath the waves. The form
in which she appeared to him was a woman's ; but she
passed her Thursdays in seclusion, which she forbade
him to break, enjoining him, moreover, never to call her
Mermaid. After little more than a year, however, he
grew curious and jealous, and yielded to the temptation
of peeping through the curtain of her chamber, where
he beheld her swimming about, half woman and half
fish. He had broken the condition of his happiness, and
might no longer stay with her. Wherefore he was cast
up again on the shore where he had first met the
mermaid. Rising and going into the village he inquired
for his parents, but found that they had been dead for
more than thirty years, and that his brothers were dead
too. He himself was unconsciously changed into an old
man. For a few days he wandered about the shore, and
the charitable gave him bread. He ventured to tell his
history to one kind friend ; but the same night he dis-
appeared, and in a few days the waves cast up his body
on the beach.1

The foregoing tales all combine with the characteristics

1 Des Michels, p. 38 ; Kreutzwald, p. 212. See also my article on
" The Forbidden Chamber," " F. L. Journal," vol. iii. p. 193, where
the relations of the Esthonian tale to the myth of the Forbidden
Chamber are discussed.

202 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of the group under discussion, either those of the Swan-
maiden group or those of the Forbidden Chamber group.
In the myth of the Swan-maidens, as in some types of the
myth of the Forbidden Chamber, the human hero weds
a supernatural bride ; and a story containing such an
incident seems to have a tendency to unite itself to one
or other of these two groups. This tendency is not,
however, always developed. The two ladies in the
Chinese legend, cited in the last chapter, were neither
Swan-maidens nor female Bluebeards ; and this is not the
only tale from the Flowery Land in which these super-
human beauties appear without promoting the develop-
ment in question. Nor do I find any hint of it in the
tradition of Bran Mac Fearbhall, King of Ireland, who
was one day lulled asleep by a strain of fairy music. On
awaking he found the silver branch of a tree by his side ;
and a strange lady appeared at his court and invited him
to a land of happiness. He handed her the silver branch ;
and the next morning with a company of thirty persons
he sailed out on the ocean. In a few days they landed on
an island inhabited only by women, of whom the strange
lady appeared to be the chieftainess. Here Bran Mac
Fearbhall remained several ages before returning to his
own palace near Lough Foyle. An Arab tale in the
Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris shows us a king's son
who in his wanderings lands on a strange island, where
he marries the king's daughter and becomes his father-in-
law's vizier. The country was watered by a river which
flowed at certain seasons from a great mountain. Every
year it was the vizier's duty to enter the cavern, having
first received instructions from the king and a mysterious
gift. At the end of an hour he reappeared, followed by
the stream, which continued to flow dviring the time
needful for the fertilization of the country. When the
prince as vizier entered the cavern he found a negro, who
led him to his mistress, the queen of a people of Amazons.
In her hands was the management of the river ; and she

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OP TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 203

had caused the periodical drought in order to exact a
tribute of date-stones which she had to pass on to an Ifrit,
to purchase his forbearance towards her own subjects.
The prince ingratiates himself with her : she suppresses
the periodical droughts and marries him. After two cen-
turies of wedded life she dies, leaving him ten daughters,
whom he takes back, together with considerable wealth,
to the city formerly governed by his father-in-law, and
now by his great-great-grandson. The latter was a hun-
dred years old, and venerable by the side of his great-
great-grandfather, over whose head the years had passed
in that enchanted realm without effect. He made him-
self known to his descendant and stayed ten years with
him ; but whether he succeeded in marrying off any of
his daughters, of ages so very uncertain, the abstract of
the story I have before me does not say. At last he
returned to his native land, and reigned there for a long
time.1

In the hero of the Island of Happiness we found just
now one who, having returned to earth for a season, had
been taken back again by his supernatural spouse to a
more lasting enjoyment. But he is not alone in his
good fortune. Thomas of Erceldoune, a personage less
shadowy than some of those commemorated in this
chapter, is known to have lived in the thirteenth century.
His reputation for prophetic powers has been wide and
lasting. These powers were said to be, like Oisin's, a gift
from the Fairy Queen. She met him under the Eildon
Tree, which stood on the easternmost of the three
Eildon Hills. Having got him into her power, she took
him down with her into Fairyland, where he abode, as he
deemed, for three days, but in reality for three years.
At the end of that time the lady carries him back to
Eildon Tree and bids him farewell. He asks her for
some token whereby he may say that he had been with

1 Dennys, p. 98, "Gent. Mag. Lib." (Eng. Trad. Lore), p. 22;
" Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iii. p. 566.

2©4 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

her ; and she bestows on him a prophetic tongue that
cannot lie, and leaves him with a promise to meet him
again on Huntley Banks. Here both the old ballads and
the older romance desert us ; but if we may trust Sir
Walter Scott's report of the tradition current in the
neighbourhood, Thomas was under an obligation to
return to Fairyland whenever he was summoned.
u Accordingly, while Thomas was making merry with
his friends in the tower of Ercildoune, a person came
running in, and told, with marks of fear and astonish-
ment, that a hart and hind had left the neighbouring
forest, and were, composedly and slowly, parading the
street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, left
his habitation, and folloAved the wonderful animals to the
forest, whence he was never seen to return. According
to the popular belief, he still ' drees his weird ' in Fairy-
land, and is one day expected to revisit earth. In the
meanwhile his memory is held in the most profound
respect." x

In the romance of Ogier, or Olger, the Dane, one of
the Paladins of Charlemagne, it is related that six fairies
presided at his birth and bestowed various gifts upon
him. Morgan the Fay, the last of the six, promised that
after a long and glorious career he should never die, but
dwell with her in her castle of Avalon. Wherefore, after
he had lived and fought and loved for more than a
hundred years, Morgan caused him to be shipwrecked.
All men thought he had perished. In reality Morgan
had taken this means of bringing him to Avalon, where
she met him and put a ring on his finger, which restored
him to youth, and a golden crown of myrtle and laurel
on his brow — the crown of forgetfulness. His toils, his
battles, even his loves were forgotten ; and his heart was
filled with a new devotion, namely, for the fairy queen
Morgan. With her he dwelt in pleasures ever new for

1 " Thomas of Erceldoune," passim ; Child, vol. i. p. 318 ; " Border
Minstrelsy," vol. iii. p. 170.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 205

two hundred years, until there came a day when France
and Christendom fell into trouble and danger, and the
peoples cried out for a deliverer. Morgan heard them,
and resolved that Olger must go to fight for them. She
lifted the crown from his brow, and his memory came
back. She bade him guard well his ring, and gave him a
torch : if that torch were lighted his life would burn out
with the last spark. He returned to France, fought the
Paynim and conquered, freeing France and Christendom.
The widowed queen of France then intrigued to marry
him ; but as she was on the point of attaining her pur-
pose Morgan appeared and caught him away. In Avalon
he still dreams in her arms ; and some day when France
is in her direst need, Olger will come back on his
famous charger to smite and to deliver her.

Here we come upon another type, the story and the
superstition of the expected deliverer, which is widely
scattered through Europe. In this country the most
noted example is that of King Arthur, who may fitly give
his name to the type. King Arthur, according to the
romances, is, like Olger, in the Island of Avalon, where
indeed the romance of Olger declares that the two heroes
met. Sir Thomas Malory tells vis : " Some men yet say
in many parts of England that King Arthur is not dead,
but had by the will of our Lord Jesu Christ into another
place ; and men say that hee will come againe, and he
shall winne the holy crosse. I will not say that it shall
bee so, but rather I will say that heere in this world hee
changed his life. But many men say that there is
written upon his tombe this verse : His jacet Arthurus,
rex quondam, rexque futurus." This is a belief dear to
the heart of many an oppressed people. It was told of
Harold that he was not slain at Senlac, and that he would
yet come back to lead his countrymen against the hated
Normans. Even of Roderick, the Last of the Goths,
deeply stained as he was with crime, men were loth to
believe that he was dead. In the latter part of the

206 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

sixteenth century, after Don Sebastian had fallen in the
ill-fated expedition to Morocco, Philip the Second of
Spain took advantage of the failure of the male line on
the death of the cardinal-king, Henry, to add Portugal
to his dominions, already too large. His tyranny roused
a popular party whose faith was that Don Sebastian was
not really dead : he was reigning in the Island of the
Seven Cities, and he would return by and by to drive
out the Spaniards and their justly execrated king. Even
in the year 1761 a monk was condemned by the Inquisi-
tion as a Sebastianist, a believer and a disseminator of
false prophecies, — so long did the tradition linger. In the
Spanish peninsula, indeed, the superstition has been by no
means confined to Christians. The Moors who were left
in the mountains of Valentia looked for the return of
their hero Alfatimi upon a green horse, from his place of
concealment in the Sierra de Aguar, to defend them and
to put their Catholic tyrants to the sword.1

Oppression nourishes beliefs of this kind. It was under
the Roman dominion that the Jewish expectation of a Mes-
siah grew to its utmost strength ; and the manifestation
of the Messiah was to be preceded by the reappearance
of Elijah, a prophet who was not dead but translated
to heaven. And strange sometimes are the gods from
whom salvation is to come. Only a few years ago, if we
may trust Bishop Melchisedech of Roumania, there was
a Slavonic sect, the object of whose worship was Napoleon
the First. He, said his worshippers, had not really died ;
he was only at Irkousk, in Siberia, where, at the head of
a powerful, an invincible, army, he was ready once more
to overrun the world.2

But, however the belief in a deity, or hero, who is to

1 Malory, vol. iii. p. 339 ; Braga, vol. ii. p. 238 ; Liebrecht in a note
to Gerv. Tilb., p. 95, quoting Aznar, " Expulsion delos Moriscos."

2 " Athenaeum," No. 2,400, 25 Oct. 1873, giving an account of Bishop
Melchisedech's book, entitled " Lipovenismulu," on the creed and cus-
toms of the Raskolnics, or Russian schismatics.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 207

return some day, may be strengthened by political causes,
it is not dependent upon them. Many races having tradi-
tions of a Culture God — that is, of a superior being who
has taught them agriculture and the arts of life, and led
them to victory over their enemies — add that he has
gone away from them for awhile, and that he will some
day come back again. Quetzalcoatl and Viracocha,
the culture gods of Mexico and Peru, are familiar in-
stances of this. In the later Brahminism of India, Vishnu,
having already accomplished nine avatars, or incarna-
tions, for special emergencies in the past, was yet to have
one more avatar for the final destruction of the wicked
and the restoration of goodness at the end of the present
age ; he would then be revealed in the sky seated on a
white horse and wielding a blazing sword. I need not
specify others : it will be manifest that the traditions
of modern Europe we have been considering contain the
same thought. Nor is it unlikely that they have been
influenced by the Christian doctrine of the Second Advent.
Many of them have received the polish of literature.
The stories of Olger and Arthur, for example, have
descended, to us as romances written by cultivated men.
Don Sebastian was the plaything of a political party, if
not the symbol of religious heresy, for nearly two cen-
turies. In all these stories we encounter the belief that
the god or hero is in heaven, or in some remote land.
Such a belief is the sign of a civilization comparatively
advanced. The cruder and more archaic belief is that
he sleeps within the hills.

This cruder belief is more familiar in the folklore of
Europe than the other. King Arthur was believed to
lie with his warriors beneath the Craig-y-Ddinas (Castle
Rock) in the Vale of Neath. lolo Morganwg, a well-
known Welsh antiquary, used to relate a curious tradi-
tion concerning this rock. A Welshman, it was said,
walking over London Bridge with a hazel staff in his
hand, was met by an Englishman, who told him that the

208 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

stick he carried grew on a spot under which were hidden
vast treasures, and if the Welshman remembered the
place and would show it to him he would put him in
possession of those treasures. After some demur the
Welshman consented, and took the Englishman (who
was in fact a wizard) to the Craig-y-Ddinas and showed
him the spot. They dug up the hazel tree on which the
staff grew and found under it a broad flat stone. This
covered the entrance to a cavern in which thousands of
warriors lay in a circle sleeping on their arms. In the
centre of the entrance hung a bell which the conjurer
begged the Welshman to beware of touching. But if
at any time he did touch it and any of the warriors should
ask if it were day, he was to answer without hesitation :
u No ; sleep thou on." The warriors' arms were so
brightly polished that they illumined the whole cavern ;
and one of them had arms that outshone the rest, and a
crown of gold lay by his side. This was Arthur ; and
when the Welshman had taken as much as he could
carry of the gold which lay in a heap amid the warriors,
both men passed out ; not, however, without the Welsh-
man's accidentally touching the bell. It rang ; but when
the inquiry : " Is it day ? " came from one of the warriors,
he was prompt with the reply : " No ; sleep thou on.''
The conjurer afterwards told him that the company he
had seen lay asleep ready for the dawn of the day when
the Black Eagle and the Golden Eagle should go to
war, the clamour of which would make the earth tremble
so much that the bell would ring loudly and the warriors
would start up, seize their arms, and destroy the enemies
of the Cymry, who should then repossess the island of
Britain and be governed from Caerlleon with justice and
peace so long as the world endured. When the Welsh-
man's treasure was all spent he went back to the cavern
and helped himself still more liberally than before. On
his way out he touched the bell again : again it rang.
But this time he was not so ready with his answer, and

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 2OQ

some of the warriors rose up, took the gold from him,
beat him and cast him out of the cave. He never re-
covered the effects of that beating, but remained a cripple
and a pauper to the end of his days ; and he never could
find the entrance to the cavern again. Merlin and the
charm

"Of woven paces and of waving hands "

I need not do more than mention. A recess in the rock
three miles eastward of Carmarthen, called Merlin's Cave,
is generally accredited as the place where Vivien perpetrated
her treachery. Merlin's county is possessed of another en-
chanted hero. On the northern side of Mynydd Mawr
(the Great Mountain) near Llandilo, is a cave where
Owen Lawgoch (Owen of the Red Hand), one of the last
chieftains who fought against the English, lies with his
men asleep. And there they will lie until awakened by
the sound of a trumpet and the clang of arms on Rhyw-
goch, when they will arise and conquer their Saxon foes,
driving them from the land. A more famous chieftain
is the subject of a similar belief in the Vale of Gwent.
Considerable obscurity overhangs the fate of Owen
Glendower. What is certain about him is that he
disappeared from history in the year 1415. What is
believed in the Vale of Gwent is that he and his men
still live and lie asleep on their arms in a cave there,
called " Gogov y Ddinas," or Castle Cave, where they
will continue until England become self-debased ; but
that then they will sally forth to reconquer their country,
privileges, and crown for the Welsh, who shall be dis-
possessed of them no more until the Day of Judgment.1

1 " Trans. Aberd. Eistedd.," p. 227, quoting Waring's " Recollections
of lolo Morganwg" ; Black's " Picturesque Guide to Wales" (1872),
p. 279; Howells, p. 104; "lolo MSS." (Llandovery, 1848), pp. 68,
454, quoting from papers attributed to the Rev. Evan Evans, and said
to be, when copied by lolo Morganwg, in the possession of Paul
Fanton, Esq. , of Anglesea.

J5

210 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

In other Celtic lands the same superstition occurs.
There is a hole called the Devil's Den at the foot of a
mountain in the Isle of Man where it was believed in the
last century that a great prince who never knew death
had been bound by spells for six hundred years ; but
none had ever had courage enough to explore the hole.
In Sutherlandshire it is said that a man once entered a
cave and there found many huge men all asleep on the
floor. They rested on their elbows. In the centre of
the hall was a stone table, and on it lay a bugle. The
man put the bugle to his lips and blew once. They all
stirred. He blew a second blast, and one of the giants,
rubbing his eyes, said : " Do not do that again, or you
will wake us ! " The intruder fled in terror, and never
found the mouth of the cavern again. Earl Gerald of
Mullaghmast sleeps with his warriors in a cavern under
the castle, or Rath, of Mullaghmast. A long table runs
down the middle of the cave. The Earl sits at the head,
and his troopers in complete armour on either side, their
heads resting on the table. Their horses, saddled and
bridled, stand behind their masters in stalls on either
side. The Earl was a leader of the Irish ; he was very
skilful at weapons, and deep in the black art. He could
change himself into any shape he pleased. His lady was
always begging him to let her see him in some strange
shape ; but he always put her off, for he told her that
if during his transformation she showed the least fright
he would not recover his natural form till many genera-
tions of men were under the mould. Nothing, however,
would do for the lady but an exhibition of his powers ;
so one evening he changed himself into a goldfinch.
While he was playing with her in this form a hawk
caught sight of him and pursued him. The hawk dashed
itself against a table and was killed ; but the lady had
given a loud scream at seeing her husband's danger, and
neither goldfinch nor Earl did she behold again. Once
in seven years the Earl rides round the Curragh of

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 211

Kildare on a horse whose silver shoes were half an inch
thick when he disappeared. When they are worn as
thin as a cat's ear, a miller's son, who is to be born with
six fingers on each hand, will blow his trumpet, the
troopers will awake and mount their horses and with the
Earl go forth to battle against the English ; and he will
reign King of Ireland for twoscore years. A horse-
dealer once found the lighted cavern open on the night
the Earl was riding round the Curragh and went in.
In his astonishment at what he saw he dropped a bridle
on the ground. The sound of its fall echoing in the
recesses of the cave aroused one of the warriors nearest
to him ; and he lifted up his head and asked : u Is it
time yet ? " The man had the wit to say : " Not yet,
but soon will ; " and the heavy helmet sank down once
more upon the table, while the man made the best of
his way out. On Rathlin Island there is a ruin called
Bruce's Castle. In a cave beneath lie Bruce and his
chief warriors in an enchanted sleep ; but some day they
will arise and unite the island to Scotland. Only once
in seven years the entrance to the cave is visible. A man
discovered it on one of these occasions, and went in. He
found himself in the presence of these men in armour.
A sabre was half-sheathed in the earth at his feet. He
tried to draw it, but every one of the sleepers lifted his
head and put his hand on his sword. The intruder fled ;
but ere the gate of the cavern clanged behind him he
heard voices calling fiercely after him : " Why could we
not be left to sleep ? " '

The population of the south and west of Yorkshire is
largely Celtic. A tradition of Arthur seems to have
been preserved among them to the effect that he and his
knights sit spell-bound in the ruins of a castle, believed
by the clergyman who communicated it to Mr. Alfred
Nutt to be Richmond Castle. Wherever it was, a man

1 Waldron, p. 68; " F. L. Journal," vol. vi. p. 164; Kennedy,
p. 172, Lady Wilde, vol. i. p. 161.

212 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

named Potter Thompson penetrated by chance into the
hall, and found them sitting around a table whereon lay
a sword and a horn. The man did not venture, like the
Sutherlandshire intruder, to blow the horn, but turned
and fled at once. There, it seems, he made a mistake ;
for had he done so he would have released Arthur from
the spell. And as he crossed the threshold again a voice
sounded in his ears : —

"Potter Thompson, Potter Thompson, hadst thou blown the horn,
Thou hadst been the greatest man that ever was born."

He had missed his chance, and could not return into the
enchanted hall. By the twelfth century the legend of
Arthur had reached Sicily, perhaps with the Normans.
Gervase of Tilbury tells us that a boy was in charge of
the Bishop of Catania's palfrey, when it broke loose and
ran away. He pursued it boldly into the dark recesses of
Mount Etna, where, on a wide plain full of all delights,
he found Arthur stretched on a royal couch in a palace
built with wonderful skill. Having explained what
brought him thither, the hero caused the horse to be
given up to him, and added gifts which were afterwards
beheld with astonishment by many. Arthur informed
him, moreover, that he had been compelled to remain
there on account of his wound, which broke out afresh
every year.1

In Teutonic lands the legends of the sleeping host and
the sleeping monarch are very numerous. Grimm in his
Mythology has collected many of them. I select for
mention a few only, adding one or two not included by
him. Karl the Great lies in the Unterberg, near Salz-
burg, and also in the Odenberg, where Woden himself,
according to other legends, is said to be. Siegfried, the
hero of the Nibelungen Lied, dwells in the mountain

1 " F. L. Journal," vol. i. p. 193 ; Gerv. Tilb., Dec. ii. c. 12. See
Mr. Nutt's remarks on these in his admirable "Studies on the Legend
of the Holy Grail " (London, 1888), pp. 123, 196.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 213

fastness of Geroldseck. Diedrich rests in the mountains
of Alsace, his hand upon his sword, waiting till the Turk
shall water his horses on the banks of the Rhine. On
the Griitli, where once they met to swear the oath which
freed their country, lie the three founders of the Swiss
Federation in a cleft of the rock. The Danes have appro-
priated Olger, who, Grimm says, really belongs to the
Ardennes ; and in a vaulted chamber under the castle
of Kronburg he sits, with a number of warriors clad in
mail, about a stone table, into which his beard has grown.
A slave who was condemned to death received pardon
and freedom on condition of descending to ascertain
what was beneath the castle ; for at that time no one
knew, and no one could explain the clashing of armour
sometimes heard below. He passed through an iron
doorway and found himself in the presence of Olger and
his men. Their heads rested on their arms, which were
crossed upon the table. When Olger lifted up his head
the table burst asunder. " Reach me thy hand," he said
to the slave ; but the latter, not venturing to give his
hand, held out an iron bar instead, which Olger squeezed
so that the marks remained visible. At length letting
it go, he exclaimed : " It gladdens me that there are still
men in Denmark ! " x

But of all the great names appropriated by this myth,
the one which has thus been made most famous is that
of Frederick Barbarossa. When he was drowned in
crossing the river Calycadmus in Asia Minor, the
peasants of Germany refused to believe in his death,
and constantly expected him to return. Poems which
go back to the- middle of the fourteenth century, or
within a century and a half of Frederick's death, prove
the existence of a tradition to this effect. More than
this, they contain allusions to some of the details about
to be mentioned, and foretell his recovery of the Holy

1 Grimm, "Teut. Myth." pp. 953, 955, 961; Thorpe, vol. ii. p.
222, translating Thiele ; Certeux et Carnoy, vol. i. p. 6j>.

214 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Sepulchre . The Kyffhauser in Thuringia is the moun-
tain usually pointed out as his place of retreat, though
other places also claim the honour. Within the cavern
he sits at a stone table, and rests his head upon his
hand. His beard grows round the table : twice already
has it made the circuit ; when it has grown round the
third time the emperor will awake. He will then come
forth, and will hang his shield on a withered tree which
will break into leaf, and a better time will dawn.
Gorgeous descriptions are given of the cavern. It is
radiant with gold and jewels ; and though it is a
cavern deep in the earth, it shines within like the
sunniest day. The most splendid trees and shrubs stand
there, and through the midst of this Paradise flows a
brook whose very mud is pure gold. Here the
emperor's rest is not so profound as might have been
expected. A strain of music easily seems to rouse him.
A shepherd having once piped to him, Frederick asked :
" Fly the ravens round the mountain still ? " " Yes,"
replied the shepherd. "Then must I sleep another
hundred years," murmured the emperor. The shepherd
was taken into the armoury, and rewarded with the stand
of a hand-basin, which turned out to be of pure gold.
A party of musicians on their way home from a wedding
passed that way, and played a tune " for the old Emperor
Frederick." Thereupon a maiden stepped out, and
brought them the emperor's thanks, presenting each of
them with a horse's head by way of remembrance. All
but one threw the gift away in contempt. One, however,
kept his " to have a joke with his old woman," as he
phrased it, and taking it home he put it under the pillow.
In the morning, when his wife turned up the pillow to
look at it, instead of a horse's head she brought forth a
lump of gold. Other stories are told of persons who
have penetrated into the emperor's presence and been
enriched. A shepherd found the mountain open on
St. John's Day, and entered. He was allowed to take

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 215

some of the horse-meal, which when he reached home
he found to be gold. Women have been given knots of
flax, of the same metal. A swineherd, however, who
went in, was less lucky. The emperor's lady-housekeeper
made signs to him that he might take some of the
treasure on the table before him ; accordingly he stuffed
his pockets full. As he turned to go out she called after
him : " Forget not the best ! " She meant a flower
which lay on the table ; but he heeded not, and the
mountain, slamming behind him, cut off his heel, so that
he died in great pain.1

Such are a few of the legends relating to the Kyff-
haiiser ; but it should be observed that Frederick Bar-
barossa's is not the only name given to the slumbering
hero. We have already seen in the last chapter that one
tradition calls him the Marquis John. Another dubs
him the Emperor Otto ; and yet in another Dame Holle
is identified with his housekeeper. Now this difference
in the traditions about names, while they agree in the
substance of the superstition, indicates that the substance
is older and more important than the names, and that
well-known names have become affixed to the traditions
as they happened from time to time to strike the popular
imagination. This is confirmed by the fact that in many
places where similar traditions are located, no personal
name at all is given to the hero. In the Guckenberg,
near Frankischgemunden, an emperor disappeared a long
time ago with his army. A boy selling rolls once met an
old man, to whom he complained of bad trade. The old
man said he could show him a place where he could
bring his rolls every day ; but he must tell no one
thereof. So saying, he led the boy into the mountain,
where there were many people. The emperor himself
sat at a table, round which his beard had grown twice :

1 Grimm, " Teut. Myth.," p. 955; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 217.
See also Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 101, translating Kuhn und Schwartz, and
Grimm .

210 THE SCIENCE Of FAIRY TALES.

when it has grown round it once more he will come forth
again with all his men. The boy's rolls were bought ;
and he daily repeated his visit. After a while, however,
he could not pass the ancient coin wherein he was paid.
The people in the village, grown suspicious, made him
confess all ; and he could never find his way to the
mountain again. In the " Auersperg Chronicle," under
the year 1223, it is recorded that from a certain mountain
which Grimm identifies with the Donnersberg (Thor's
mountain), near Worms, a multitude of armed horsemen
used daily to issue, and thither daily to return. A man,
who armed himself with the sign of the cross, and
questioned one of the host in the name of Our Lord, was
told by him : " We are not, as you think, phantoms, nor,
as we seem, a band of soldiers, but the souls of slain
soldiers. The arms and clothing, and horses, because
they once were the instruments of sin, are now to us the
materials of our punishment ; for what you behold upon
us is really on fire, although you cannot perceive it with
your bodily eyes." We saw in an earlier chapter that a
story influenced by the Welsh Methodist revival repre-
sented the midwife whose sight was cleared by fairy
ointment as beholding herself surrounded by flames, and
the fairies about her in the guise of devils. In the same
way here the wonders recorded by a pious ecclesiastic
have taken, though possibly not in the first instance
from him, a strictly orthodox form, and one calculated
to point a pulpit moral.1

Over against the last two legends we may place two from
Upper Alsace. A body of the Emperor Karl the Great's
warriors had become so puffed up by their successes that
at last they pointed their guns and cannon against
heaven itself. Scarcely had they discharged their pieces
when the whole host sank into the earth. Every seventh
year they may be seen by night on their horses, exer-

1 Kuhn uncl Schwartz, pp. 220, 222 ; Grimm, ." Teut. Myth."
PP- 953> 954-

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 217

cising. Concerning them it is said that a baker's
daughter of Ruffach, in the Ochsenfeld valley, was
carrying white bread to the next village, when she met
a soldier on a white horse who offered to lead her to a
place where she could sell the bread immediately for a
good price. She accordingly followed him through a
subterranean passage into a great camp quite full of
long- bearded soldiers, who were all fast asleep. Here she
sold all her bread, and was well paid ; and for several
years she continued daily to sell her bread there, so that
her father became a rich man. One day she was ill
and unable to go, whereupon she sent her brother, de-
scribing the place to him. He found it, but a door
blocked up the passage, and he could not open it.
The girl died soon after, and since then no one has
entered the subterranean camp. From Biitow in
Pomerania comes a saga similar to that of Olger at
Kronburg. A mountain in the neighbourhood is held
to be an enchanted castle, communicating by an under-
ground passage with the castle of Biitow. A criminal
was once offered his choice whether to die by the hang-
man, or to make his way by the passage in question to
the enchanted castle, and bring back a written proof
from the lord who sat enchanted within it. He succeeded
in his mission ; and the document he brought back is
believed to be laid up among the archives of the town.
According to another account a man once met two
women who led him into the mountain, where he found
a populous city. They brought him safely back after
he had spent six hours within the mountain. A saga
referred to by Grimm relates how a shepherd found in
the cavern of the Willberg a little man sitting at a stone
table through which his beard had grown ; and in
another three unnamed malefactors are spoken of.
In Sweden there is a story that may remind us of the
Sutherlandshire legend. In a large cleft of the mountain
of Billingen, in West Gothland, called the Giant's Path,

2l8 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

it is said there was formerly a way leading far into the
mountain, into which a peasant once penetrated, and
found a man lying asleep on a large stone. No one
knows how he came there ; but every time the bell tolls
for prayers in Yglunda church, he turns round and sighs.
So he will continue until Doomsday.1 In none of these
stories is the hero identified with any known historical
person.

Among the Slavonic peoples corresponding sagas are
told. In Servia and Bulgaria King Marko is the en-
chanted hero. He is variously held to be in a palace on
some mysterious island, or in a mountain not far from
the Iron Gates. The traveller who crosses the mountain
calls to him : <( Marko, dost thou live ? " and in the echo
he believes that Marko gives him a reply. u Prince "
Marko is also believed by the Serbs to be in the moun-
tain Urvina with his horse Sharatz, asleep. His sword
is rising slowly out of the mountain. When it is fully
disclosed, Marko will awake and deliver his people.
If other accounts may be trusted, however, he has retired
to the Alps since the invention of gunpowder, and now
lives as a hermit in a cave. So great pity was it

" This villainous saltpetre should be digg'd
Out of the bowels of the harmless earth."2

The Carpathian hero is Dobocz, the robber chief. He
is bespelled by a jealous mistress in a cavern on the
Czornahora, where he perpetually counts the gold he has

1 Meier, pp. 122, 123 ; Jahn, p. 248 ; Grimm, "Teut. Myth." p. 961 ;
Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 91, from Afzelius. In an Austrian mdrchen the
Sleeping Host is a host of serpents. The king slept on a crystal table
in the centre. During the winter serpents are believed to sleep. In
the spring the oldest serpent awakes and wakens the others, crying :
" It is time" (Vernaleken, p. 113).

- Grohmann, p. 10. Marko was a shepherd, who for a service ren-
dered to a Vila was gifted by her with heroism, beauty, and other
good fortune (Krauss, " Volksgl." p. 103).

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 219

hidden. On certain days of the year he comes out with
his followers ; and then he has often been seen by the
mountaineers. Sometimes he visits his wife in her rock-
dwelling by Polansko, where she too is enchanted ; and
on such occasions the nightly festivities may be seen and
heard. Bold are they who endeavour to penetrate the
depths of the mountain where Dobocz dwells. They
never return, but are caught by the robber and added to
his band. Strengthened with these reinforcements his
companions will be with him when the charm shall one
day be broken, and he will issue forth to take vengeance
on the men who betrayed him. Some of the stories of
Blanik Mountain, where Wenzel, the king of Bohemia,
lies, have been set before the reader. The horses of him-
self and his followers stand ever ready saddled ; and at
midnight the mountain opens, and the king and his
knights ride forth to exercise upon the plain. But other
heroes than Wenzel dispute with him the honour of
being the enchanted inhabitant of the Blanik. One
clear moonlight night of spring the burgesses of Jung-
Wositz were aroused from their slumbers by the beating
of drums, and the clang of armour, and the trampling of
horses. Terrified at such a rout, and not knowing what
it might mean, they seized their weapons and stood on
the defensive. Nor were they a little surprised to see
on the open meadows a troop of horsemen engaged in
knightly play. By and by, at the sound of the kettle-
drum, the troop formed into rank, and vanished into the
mountain, which closed behind them with a crash. The
burgesses offered a reward to whomsoever would explore
the recesses of the mountain, and bring them sure
tidings of the ghostly horsemen. Three years passed by
ere the task was attempted. At last a clever man,
Zdenko von Zasmuk, undertook the adventure. He was
lucky enough to find the mountain open ; and riding in,
he came into a vast lighted hall where slept on stone
benches the knights of the mountain, now changed into

220 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

fine old men with long white beards. Their snow-white
horses, ready saddled, stood fastened to the piers of the
vault. Zdenko accidentally knocked down a spear ; and
the clangour, echoing round the hall, awakened the
men. He explained to them why he had come, and
politely offered, if they wished, to attempt their deliver-
ance. Their leader informed him in reply that he was
Ulrich von Rosenberg, that he with his companions had
fallen gloriously against Chichka, in defence of the city of
Litic, and that God, instead of admitting them into Paradise,
had assigned them an abode in that place until Bohemia
should be at its sorest need ; then they would sally forth,
and bring back peace and happiness to the land. And
he enjoined Zdenko to make this known to the people.
So saying, he sank again to sleep. It is said, moreover,
that when the time of which Ulrich spoke shall come, a
certain hazel-tree shall begin to blossom, though it will
be winter. A quite different story alleges that it is the
Knight Stoymir, who is under the spell at Blanik. His
last struggle against the plundering hordes which over-
ran the country took place there ; and he with all his
band perished. The next morning when the enemy had
departed his friends searched the battlefield, but not a
trace could be recovered of their bodies. It was first
thought that the foes had carried them off to be ran-
somed. At night, however, the inhabitants of the
neighbourhood were roused from slumber by the noise
of a host ; and they beheld the slain heroes exercising
and afterwards watering their horses at the beck before
they returned to the mountain. The herdsman who
told the foregoing tale declared that he had been into the
mountain, and had himself seen Stoymir and his com-
panions in their sleep. There can be no doubt, therefore,
of its truth.1

Legends of buried armies occur also at Trzebnica, in
Silesia, where the Poles encountered the Turks, and at
1 Grohmann, pp. II, 13, 15.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 221

Matwa in the Prussian province of Posen. In the former
a girl who is admitted into the cavern is warned against
touching a bell that, as in the Welsh tale, hangs in the
entrance. She cannot resist the temptation to transgress
this command, and is ignominiously ejected. In the
latter, an old man buys corn for the troops. Again, in
the Carpathians, as in one of the sagas concerning the
Blanik, a smith is summoned to shoe the steeds. The
Rev. \V. S. Lach-Szyrma, in addition to these stories,
gave the Folklore Society some years ago, from a chap-
book of Posen, the following abstract of a legend I have
not met with elsewhere : " Once upon a time, in Mazo-
wia, there were seven victorious leaders. After having
won a hundred battles, finding their beards had grown
white, they ordered their soldiers to build in their honour
a very high tower. The soldiers built and built, but
every day part of the tower tumbled down. This lasted
a whole year. The leaders, after supper, assembled at
the ruins of the tower. Here, at the sound of lutes and
songs, immediately a tower grew up from the earth to
heaven, and on its seven pinnacles shone the seven
helmets of the seven leaders. Higher and higher they
rose, but brighter and brighter they shone till they
appeared as the seven stars in heaven. The soldiers
sank down into graves which had been dug round the
tower and fell asleep. The tower has melted out of view,
but on fine nights we still see the seven helmets of the
leaders, and the soldiers are sleeping till they are
wanted." x

1 " F. L. Record," vol. iv. p. 67. Mr. Lach-Szyrma conjectures that
the seven stars are the stars of Ursa Major.

CHAPTER IX.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND

(continued}.

The story not an early one — Its weirdest developments European —
Stories of short time appearing long — Mohammed's night-journey
and its variants — The Sleeping Hero, a heathen god — The Wild
Hunt — The Enchanted Princess, a heathen goddess.

THE visits to Fairyland recorded in Chapter VII differ
only in one respect from those mentioned in earlier
chapters of this book. Like them, they are visits of
business or of pleasure. Mortals are summoned to per-
form some service for the mysterious beings whose
dwelling is beneath the earth, such as to stand sponsor
to their children, or to shoe their horses ; or they go to
take a message from this world, or to bring a message
back. Or else they are drawn into the regions over
which the power of the supernatural extends, by
curiosity, by the desire of pleasure, or else by the
invitation, or unconsciously by the spell, of their super-
human inhabitants. The point at which the visits differ
from those we have previously considered, and from a
hundred others precisely parallel in all other respects, is
in their length. To the entrammelled mortal the visit
seems to last but a moment ; for while under the fairy
sway he is unconscious of the flight of time. In other
stories deception is practised on the sight. The midwife,
without the ointment, is deceived like Thor by Utgard-
Loki : nothing is as it appears to her. Parents and
husbands are deceived by changelings : they are made

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 223

to believe that images of dead wood are living creatures,
or human corpses. In these stories, on the other hand,
the magic is directed against the sense of time. A
subtler, a weirder, a more awful horror is thus added to
the dread of communion Avith the supernatural.

This horror is one arising comparatively late in the
history of culture. The idea of time must first grow up
and be elaborated. Time is dependent on number. A
savage who can barely count beyond five cannot know
anything of stories which deal with the lapse of centuries.
Even the vaguer, but shorter, period of a generation will
be an idea he cannot grasp. We have therefore found
no such tales in the lower savagery ; and even among
the Lapplanders and the Siberian tribes the stories we
have been able to collect speak only of short periods,
such as the transition from autumn to spring, where a
man had slept through the winter, and the expansion of
a day into a month, or a year. In these two cases not
only the phases of the moon and the measurement of
time by them, which must have been early in develop-
ment, but also the cycle of the seasons had been
observed. But the idea lying at the root of this group
of tales is as yet only in germ. The full terror of the
situation, as exhibited in the traditions of the more
highly organized societies of Europe and of the extreme
Orient, is unforeseen. For it is in proportion to the
organization of society that such a catastrophe as the loss
of years, and thereby of kindred and friends, becomes
really dreadful. Indeed, it would seem to have been
reserved for the European nations to put the final
touches of gloom and horror upon the canvas. It may
be sufficient to refer this to the more sombre imagination
of Western peoples. But we ought not to overlook the
influence of the Catholic Church in darkening the
general tone of the imagination, and particularly the
tone of the fairy sagas, by the absolute and unquestioned
supremacy she demanded, and the frightful penalties,

224 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

temporal and spiritual, she invoked upon those who
dared to indulge in cults she was unable to incorporate.
To men under such an influence, intercourse with fairies
would be a thing unholy ; and the greater the tempta-
tions to it, the severer, they would deem, should be the
penalties. This is the frame of mind which would, if
with shuddering, yet without a murmur, acquiesce in the
justice of the doom suffered by Herla, to put an extreme
case — a frame of mind undoubtedly countenanced by the
equally uncompromising claims of various forms of
Protestantism. But, while reprobating commerce with
unhallowed spirits, intercourse with spirits sanctioned by
the Church was believed to be almost equally possible,
and Avas encouraged as much as the other was denounced.
If such intercourse sometimes resulted in severance between
the favoured mortal and his human friends, this was only
an extension of the monastic idea ; and, as in that case,
the loss was held to be abundantly compensated by the
favour of Heaven and the bliss received. At all events it
is certain, from whatever cause, that the deepest depths
and the loftiest heights of which this story-plot has been
found capable, have been reached only under Christian
influences. Pliny and Mohammed, the Taoist and the
Shintoist, have recorded no tale that sways our emotions
like those of Herla, the Aged Bride, and the Monk
Felix.

But the magical power over time operates now and
then in the contrary way, by making a short time appear
long. A few examples may be interesting, though they
will in no way affect the foregoing conclusions. In the
tenth part of a night Mohammed, it will be remembered,
was taken up to Paradise on the back of the beast
Alborac, and passed through all the seven heavens into
the presence of Allah himself, with whom he had a
conversation, which could not have been a very short
one, and was then brought back by the way he had
gone. He remained long enough in each heaven to give

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 225

a full, true and particular account of it and of its in-
habitants, and performed various other feats during the
journey. Nor will it be forgotten how one of the
Sultans one day expressing doubts on the possibility of
so much having happened to the Apostle in so short a
time, a learned doctor of the Mohammedan law caused
a basin of water to be brought and requested him to dip
his head into it. When the Sultan dipped his head he
found himself in a strange country, alone and friendless,
on the sea-shore. He made his way to a neighbouring
town, obtained employment, became rich, married, lived
seven years with his wife, who afterwards, to his great
grief, died, and then he lost all. One day he was
wandering in despondency along the sea-shore, where he
had first found himself ; and in his despair he determined
to cast himself into the sea. Scarcely had he done so
when he beheld his courtiers standing around his throne :
he was once more Sultan, and the basin of water into
which he had dipped his head was before him. He
began furiously to reproach the learned doctor for
banishing him from his capital and sending him into
the midst of vicissitudes and adventures for so many
years. Nor was it without difficulty that he was brought
to believe that he had only just dipped his head into the
water and lifted it out again. -

This type of story is less frequent than the other, but
it is known in countries far apart. A stripling, in
Pembrokeshire, joined a fairy dance, and found himself
in a palace glittering with gold and pearls, where he
remained in great enjoyment with the fairy folk for
many years. One restriction was laid upon him : he was
not to drink from a certain well in the midst of the
palace gardens. But he could not forbear. In that well
swam golden fishes and fishes of all colours. One day
the youth, impelled by curiosity, plunged his hand into
the water ; but in a moment fishes and all disappeared,
a shriek ran through the garden, and he found himself

16

226 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

again on the hillside with his father's flocks around him.
In fact, he had never left the sheep, and what seemed to
him to be years had been only minutes, during which the
fairy spell had been over him. In Count Lucanor, a
Spanish work of the fourteenth century, is a story of a
Dean of Santiago, who went to Don Illan, a magician
of Toledo, to be instructed in necromancy. Don Illan
made a difficulty, stating that the dean was a man of
influence and consequently likely to attain a high
position, and that men when they rise forget easily all
past obligations, as well as the persons from whom they
received them. The dean, however, protested that, no
matter to what eminence he attained, he would never
fail to remember and to help his former friends, and the
magician in particular. This being the bargain, Don
Illan led the dean into a remote apartment, first desiring
his housekeeper to procure some partridges for supper,
but not to cook them until she had his special commands.
Scarcely had the dean and his friend reached the room
when two messengers arrived from the dean's uncle, the
archbishop, summoning him to his death-bed. Being
unwilling, however, to forego the lessons he was about
to receive, he contented himself with a respectful reply.
Four days afterwards other messengers arrived with
letters informing the dean of the archbishop's death,
and again at the end of other seven or eight days he
learned that he himself had been appointed archbishop
in his uncle's place. Don Illan solicited the vacant
deanery for his son ; but the new archbishop preferred
his own brother, inviting, however, Don Illan and his
son to accompany him to his see. After awhile, the
deanery was again vacant : and again the archbishop
refused Don Illan's suit, in favour of one of his own
uncles. Two years later, the archbishop was named
cardinal and summoned to Rome, with liberty to name
his successor in the see. Don Illan, pressing his suit
more urgently, was again repulsed in favour of another

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 227

uncle. At length the pope died, and the new cardinal
was chosen pope. Don Ulan, who had accompanied him
to Rome, then reminded him that he had now no excuse
for not fulfilling the promises he had so often repeated to
him. The pope sought to put him off ; but Don Ulan
complained in earnest of the many promises he had
made, none of which had been kept, and declared that
he had no longer any faith in his words. The pope, much
angered, threatened to have Don Ulan thrown into
prison as a heretic and a sorcerer ; for he knew that in
Toledo he had no other means of support but by
practising the art of necromancy. Don Ulan, seeing
how ill the pope had requited his services, prepared to
depart ; and the pope, as if he had not already shown
sufficient ingratitude, refused even to grant him where-
with to support himself on the road. " Then," retorted
Don Ulan, " since I have nothing to eat, I must needs
fall back on the partridges I ordered for to-night's
supper." He then called out to his housekeeper and
ordered her to cook the birds. No sooner had he thus
spoken than the dean found himself again in Toledo,
still dean of Santiago, as on his arrival, for, in fact, he
had not stirred from the place. This was simply the way
the magician had chosen to test his character, before
committing himself to his hands ; and the dean was so
crestfallen he had nothing to reply to the reproaches
wherewith Don Ulan dismissed him without even a taste
of the partridges.1

A modern folk-tale from Cashmere tells of a Brahmin
who prayed to know something of the state of the
departed. One morning, while bathing in the river, his
spirit left him and entered the body of the infant child
of a cobbler. The child grew up, learned his father's
business, married, and had a large family, when suddenly
he was made aware of his high caste, and, abandoning all,
he went to another country. There the king had just
1 Howells, p. 120 ; " Count Lucanor," p. 77.

228 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

died ; and the stranger was chosen in his place, and put
upon his throne. In the course of a few years his wife
came to know where he was, and sought to join him. In
this or some other way his people learned that he was
a cobbler ; and great consternation prevailed on account
of his low caste. Some of his subjects fled ; others
performed great penances ; and some indeed burnt
themselves lest they should be excommunicated. When
the king heard all this, he too burnt himself ; and his
spirit went and re-occupied the Brahmin's corpse, which
still lay by the riverside. Thereupon the Brahmin got
up and went home to his wife, who only said : " How
quickly you have performed your ablutions this
morning ! " The Brahmin said not a word of his
adventures, notwithstanding he was greatly astonished.
To crown all, however, about a week afterwards a man
came to him begging, and said he had eaten nothing for
five days, during which he had been running away from
his country because a cobbler had been made king. All
the people, he said, were running away, or burning
themselves, to escape the consequences of such an evil.
The Brahmin, while he gave the man food, thought :
" How can these things be ? I have been a cobbler for
several years ; I have reigned as a king for several years ; —
and this man confirms the truth of my thoughts. Yet
my wife declares I have not been absent from this house
more than the usual time ; and I believe her, for she
does not look any older, neither is the place changed in
any way." Thus were the gods teaching him that the
soul passes through various stages of existence according
to a man's thoughts, words, and acts, and in the great
Hereafter a day is equal to a thousand years, and a
thousand years are equal to a day.1

We may now turn to the types in which the spell is
believed to be still powerful over heroes once mighty but
now hidden Avithin the hills, or in some far-off land,
1 Knowles, p. 17.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 22Q

awaiting in magical sleep, or in more than human delight,
the summons that shall bid them return to succour their
distressed people in the hour of utmost need. As to the
personality of these heroes there can be no doubt.
Grimm long ago pointed out that the red-bearded king
beneath the Kyffhauser can be no other than Thor, the
old Teutonic god of thunder, and that the long beard —
sometimes described as white — attributed to other leaders
was a token of Woden. The very name of Woden is
preserved in the Odenberg, to which several of such
legends attach ; and the hidden king there is sometimes
called Karl the Great, and sometimes Woden. In other
countries Quetzalcoatl and Vishnu, we know, are gods of
the native cults. Oisin, Merlin, and King Arthur all
belong to the old Celtic Pantheon. And if some
other sleeping or vanished heroes bear the names
of personages who once had a real existence, they are
but decked in borrowed plumes. In short, all these
Hidden Heroes are gods of the earlier faiths, vanquished
by Christianity but not destroyed.

If this be so, it may be inferred that these gods were at
one time conceived as presently active, and that it is only
since the introduction of the new faith that they have
been thought to be retired beneath the overhanging hills
or in the Islands of the Blest. But this was not so. In
all regions the chief activity of the deities has always
been placed in the past. Upon the stories told of the
deeds of yesterday the belief of today is founded.
Whether it be creation, or strife against evil spirits, or
the punishment of men, or the invention of the civilizing
arts, or the endless amours of too susceptible divinities,
all is looked upon as past and done. The present is
a state of rest, of suspension of labour, or at least of
cessation of open and visible activity. These gods, like
men, require an abode. In the later stages of culture
this abode is a Paradise on some more or less imaginary
mountain-top, or effectually cut off from men by the

230 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

magical tempests of the immeasurable main, or by the
supreme and silent heights of heaven. But this exalta-
tion of ideas took long to reach. At first a strange rock,
a fountain, the recesses of a cavern, or the mysterious
depths of the forest, enshrouded the divinity. In the
earlier stages of savagery it would be almost truer to say
that these were very often the divinity : at least they were
often his outward and visible form. Mr. Im Thurn,
who has had exceptional opportunities of observing the
characteristics of the savage mind, and has made excep-
tionally good use of those opportunities, in describing
the animism of the Indians of Guiana, says : u Every
object in the whole world is a being consisting of body
and spirit, and differs from every other object in no
respect except that of bodily form, and in the greater or
less degree of brute power and brute cunning consequent
on the difference of bodily form and bodily habits."
Then, after discussing the lower animals and plants as
each possessed of body and soul, and particularizing
several rocks which are supposed by the Indians to
possess spirits like human beings, he goes on : " It is
unnecessary to multiply instances, further than by saying
that almost every rock seen for the first time, and any
rock which is in any way abnormal whenever seen, is
believed to consist of body and spirit. And not only
many rocks, but also many waterfalls, streams, and
indeed material bodies of every sort, are supposed to
consist each of a body and a spirit as does man ; and
that not all inanimate objects have this dual nature
avowedly attributed to them is probably only due to
the chance that, while all such objects may at any time,
in any of the ways above indicated, show signs of the
presence of a spirit within them, this spirit has not yet
been noticed in some cases." ' From this belief to that

1 Im Thurn, pp. 352, 354. C/. Brett, p. 375. So Leland, p. 3 :
" The Indian ni'teoulin, or magician, distinctly taught that every
created thing, animate or inanimate, had its indwelling spirit. What-
ever had an idea had a soul."

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 23!

in which the rocks and hills and other inanimate objects
are looked upon as having the relation to spirits, not of
body and soul, but of dwelling and dweller, is a step
upward, and perhaps a long one. But it is a natural
development, and one which would inevitably take place
as the popular opinion of the power of certain spirits
grew, and these spirits attracted to themselves super-
stitions and sagas current among the people whose
civilization was by the same slow movement growing too.
The development spoken of would perhaps be assisted
by the erection of monuments like piles of stones, or
earthen barrows, over the dead. As formerly in their
huts, so now in their graves, the dead would be regarded
as the occupiers. Their spirits were still living, and
would be seen from time to time haunting the spot.
Food would be buried with them ; and sacrifices at the
moment of burial and on subsequent occasions would be
offered to them. In process of time among illiterate
races their identity would be forgotten, and then if the
barrows were not large enough to attract attention the
superstitions which had their seat there might cease.
But if the barrows could not be overlooked, the spirits
supposed to haunt them might merge into some other
objects of reverence. In Denmark the barrows are
invariably regarded as the haunt of fairies ; and this is
frequently the case in other countries.1 When men once

1 Cf. Grimm, "Teut. Myth." p. 962, quoting Harry, "Nieders.
Sagen " ; Jahn, p. 228, quoting Temme. Many of the sanctuaries of the
Celts were upon mounds, which were either barrows of the dead, or
were expressly made for temples ; and the god was called in Irish Cenn
Ciiiaich, in Welsh Penn Cruc (now Pen Criig), both meaning the
Head or Chief of the Mound (Rhys, "Hibbert Lectures," p. 201).
Many mounds in England, now cro\vned by churches, have been con-
jectured to be old Celtic temples. See an able paper by Mr. T. W.
Shore on "Characteristic Survivals of the Celts in Hampshire,"
Jojirn. Anthrop. Itist., vol. xx. p. 9. Mont St. Michel, near Carnac, in
Brittany, is a chambered barrow surmounted by a little chapel. From
the relics found in the tomb, as well as the size of the barrow itself,

232 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

became habituated to think of a barrow as not the
outward and visible form of some spirit, but simply its
dwelling-place — still more, perhaps, if many interments
took place within it, so that it became the dwelling-place
of many spirits — they would be led by an easy transition
to think of rocks, fountains, hills, and other natural
objects in the same way. The spirits once supposed to
b.j their inner identity would become perfectly separable
in thought from them, because merely their tenants.
Thus the gulf would be bridged between the savage
philosophy of spirits described by Mr. Im Thurn, and the
polytheism of the higher heathendom, represented by
Mexico, Scandinavia, and Greece.

But whether they travelled by this, or any different
road, certain it is that in the remoter times of the higher
heathendom men had arrived no further than the belief
that certain spots, and preferably certain striking objectsT
were the abodes of their gods. This was a doctrine
developed directly from that which regarded the more
remarkable objects of nature as the bodies of powerful
spirits. Nor was it ever entirely abandoned ; for even after
the more advanced and thoughtful of the community had
reached the idea of an Olympus, or an Asgard, far
removed above the every-day earth of humanity, the gods
still had their temples, and sacred legends still attached
to places where events of the divine history had happened.
Consequently some localities kept their reputation of
sanctity. That they were really the abiding-places of the
gods the common people would not cease to hold, what-
ever might be taught or held by those who had renounced
that crudity. And, indeed, it may be doubted whether
anybody ever renounced it altogether. Probably, at all

some person, or persons, of importance must have been buried there.
The mound may well have been a haunted, a sacred spot ever since the
ashes of the dead and their costly weapons and ornaments were com-
mitted to its keeping far back in the Neolithic age. Instances might
easily be multiplied.

THE SUPP;RNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 233

events, most persons would see no difficulty in believing
that the god dwelt on the sacred spot of earth and also
at the same time in heaven. They would accept both
traditions as equally true, without troubling themselves
how to reconcile them.

But the gods did not always remain in their dwellings.
The Wild Hunt, a tradition of a furious host riding
abroad with a terrific noise of shouts and horns and the
braying of hounds, common to Germany and England,
has been identified beyond doubt by Grimm with Woden
and his host. We cannot here discuss the subject except
in its relations with the group of stories now under con-
sideration. Woden, it will be borne in mind, is one of
the figures of the old mythology merged in the Hidden
Hero beneath the German hills. Now, nothing is more
natural than that, when a company of warriors is con-
ceived as lying ready for a summons, themselves all
armed and their steeds standing harnessed at their sides,
they should be thought now and then to sally forth.
This was the sound which surprised the good burgesses
of Jung-Wositz when Ulrich von Rosenberg and his
train rode out by night upon the plain. In this way
King Wenzel exercises his followers, and the unfortunate
Stoymir vindicated his existence beneath the Blanik not-
withstanding his death. In this way too, before a war,
Diedrich is heard preparing for battle at one o'clock in
the morning on the mountain of Ax. Once in seven
years Earl Gerald rides round the Curragh of Kildare ;
and every seventh year the host at Ochsenfeld in Upper
Alsace may be seen by night exercising on their horses.
On certain days the Carpathian robber issues from his
cavern in the Czornahora. Grimm mentions the
story of a blacksmith who found a gap he had never
noticed before in the face of a cliff on the Odenberg,
and entering, stood in the presence of mighty men,
playing there at bowls with balls of iron, as Rip
van Winkle's friends were playing at ninepins. So a

234 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Wallachian saga connects the Wild Hunt with a mys-
terious forest castle built by the Knight Sigmirian, who
was cursed with banishment for three hundred years from
the society of men for refusing the daughter of the King
of Stones. In the same category we must put the spectral
host in the Donnersberg, and Herla's company, which
haunted the Welsh marches, and is described by Walter
Map as a great band of men and women on foot and in
chariots, with pack-saddles and panniers, birds and dogs,
advancing with trumpets and shouts, and all sorts of
weapons ready for emergencies. Night was the usual
time of Herla's wanderings, but the last time he and his
train were seen was at noon. Those who then saw them,
being unable to obtain an answer to their challenge by
words, prepared to exact one by arms ; but the moment
they did so the troop rose into the air and disappeared,
nor was it ever seen again.1

This is a different account of Herla from that previously
quoted from an earlier part of Map's work ; but perhaps,
if it were worth while to spend the time, not altogether
irreconcilable with it. The tradition, it should be ob-
served, appears to have been an English, and not a Welsh,
tradition, since the host received the English name of
Herlething. Gervase of Tilbury, writing about the same
time, reports that Arthur was said by the foresters, or
woodwards, both in Britain and in Brittany, to be very
often seen at midday, or in the evening moonlight at
full of the moon, accompanied by a troop of soldiers,
hunters, dogs, and the sound of horns. This is mani-
festly a Celtic tradition. But these occasions are not the
last on which such appearances have been seen and
heard in this country. If we may believe a tract pub-
lished in 1643, spectral fights had taken place at Keniton,
in Northamptonshire, during four successive Saturday
and Sunday nights of the preceding Christmastide. By
those who are reported to have witnessed the phenomenon
1 Miiller, p. 203 ; Map, Dist. iv. c. 13.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 235

— and among them were several gentlemen of credit
mentioned by name as despatched by the king himself
from Oxford — it was taken to be a ghostly repetition of
the battle of Edgehill, which had been fought only two
months before on the adjacent fields. The excitement of
men's minds during periods of commotion has doubtless
much to do with the currency of beliefs like this. Saint
Augustine alludes to a story of a battle between evil
spirits beheld upon a plain in Campania during the civil
wars of Rome. As in the case of Edgehill, the vision
was accompanied by all the noises of a conflict ; and
indeed the saint goes the length of declaring that after it
was over the ground was covered with the footprints of
men and horses. On the spot where this is said to have
happened an actual battle took place not very long after.1
These two instances are unconnected with the Sleeping
Host ; but many of the legends explicitly declare the
exercises of the host when it emerges from its retirement
to consist of a. sham fight. Although the legends con-
taining this account are not all found among Teutonic
peoples, it cannot be deemed irrelevant to draw attention
to the fact that similar fights are mentioned as the daily
occupation of the heroes who attain to Valhalla, just as
the nightly feasts of that roystering paradise correspond
to the refreshments provided for the warriors around
the tables of stone in their subterranean retreats.
Whatever may have been the creed of other European
races, it is hardly to be doubted that in these German
superstitions we have an approach to the primitive belief,
of which the Eddaic Valhalla was a late and idealized
development.

But we may — nay, we must — go further. For in the
history of traditional religions goddesses have been as
popular as gods ; and if we are right in seeing, with
Grimm, the archaic gods in the Hidden Heroes, some

1 Gerv. Tilb., Dec. ii. c. 12; "Book of Days," vol. i. p. 154;
Augustine, " De Civ. Dei," 1. ii. c. 25.

236 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

where we must find their mates, the corresponding
goddesses. We have already had glimpses of them
in Morgan the Fay, in the Emperor Frederick's lady-
housekeeper (ausgeberin) and in the maid who in
another saga attended on his bidding. The lady-house-
keeper is expressly called in one story Dame Holle.
Now Dame Holle herself is the leader of a Furious Host,
or Wild Hunt, and has been identified by Grimm beyond
any doubt as a pagan goddess, like Berchta.

Let us take another story in which the female com-
panion of the enchanted hero appears. Near the town of
Garz, on the island of Riigen, lies a lake by which a castle
formerly stood. It belonged to an old heathen king,
whose avarice heaped up great store of gold and jewels in
the vaults beneath. It was taken and destroyed by the
Christians, and its owner was transformed into a great
black dog ever watching his treasure. Sometimes he is
still seen in human form with helm, or golden crown, and
coat of mail, riding a grey horse over the city and the
lake ; sometimes he is met with by night in the forest,
wearing a black fur cap and carrying a white staff. It is
possible to disenchant him, but only if a pure virgin, on
St. John's night between twelve and one o'clock, will
venture, naked and alone, to climb the castle wall and
wander backwards to and fro amid the ruins, until she
light upon the spot where the stairway of the tower leads
down into the treasure chamber. Slipping down, she will
then be able to take as much gold and jewels as she can
carry, and what she cannot herself carry the old king will
bring after her, so that she will be rich for the rest of her
life. But she must return by sunrise, and she must not
once look behind her, nor speak a single word, else not
only will she fail, but she will perish miserably. A
princess who was accused of unchastity obtained her
father's permission to try this adventure, in order to
prove the falsehood of the charge against her. She safely
gained the vault, which was illuminated with a thousand

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 237

lights. The king, a little grey old man, bestowed the
treasure upon her, and sent a number of servants laden
with it to follow her. All would have gone well, but
unhappily when she had climbed a few of the old steps
she looked round to see if the servants were coming. At
once the king changed into a great black dog, that sprang
upon her with fiery throat and glowing eyes. She just
had time to scream out when the door slammed to, the
steps sank, and she fell back into the vault in darkness.
She has sat there now for four hundred years, waiting
until a pure youth shall find his way down in the same
manner on St. John's night, shall bow to her thrice and
silently kiss her. He may then take her hand and lead
her forth to be his bride ; and he will inherit such riches
as a whole kingdom cannot buy.1

But goddesses do not always play so secondary a part.
In a wood in Pomerania stands a round, flat hill called
the Castle Hill, and at its foot lies a little lake known as
the Hertha Lake. By its name it is thus directly con-
nected with one of the old divinities, like that lake on the
island of Riigen referred to in Chapter IV. And here,
too, a mysterious lady has been seen to wash, a young
and lovely maiden, clad in black — not in secret, as in the
former instance, but openly, as if for the purpose of
attracting attention from passers-by, and of being spoken
to. At last a broad-shouldered workman, named Kramp,
ventured to give the maiden " the time of day," and to
get her into conversation. She told him she was a
princess, who, with her castle, had been from time
immemorial enchanted, and that she was still waiting for
her deliverer. The mode of loosing the spell was by
carrying her on his back in silence to the churchyard of
Wusseken and there putting her down, being careful not
to look round the while ; for, happen what would, he could
take no harm, even if it were threatened to tear his head
off. He undertook the task, and had nearly accomplished
1 Jahn, p. 182, quoting Arnclt.

238 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

it without troubling in the least about the troops of spirits
which followed him, when suddenly, as he drew near the
churchyard, a hurricane arose and took his cap off. For-
getful of his promise, he looked round ; and the maiden
rose into the air, weeping and crying out that she could
never be delivered now. A story told in Mecklenburg is
more picturesque. It concerns the daughter of a lake-
king, who leagued himself with other knights against a
robber, the owner of a castle called the Glamburg, which
was a place of some strength, being entirely surrounded
by the water of the Lake of Glam. The confederates
were defeated ; and nine large round barrows were raised
the next day over the slain, among whom was the lake-
king. His daughter wept upon her father's grave, and
her tears, as they touched the earth, became lovely blue
flowers. These flowers still grow upon the loftiest of the
nine barrows, while the others are quite destitute of them.
The princess threw herself that night — it was St. John's
night — into the lake ; and now every year on St. John's
night, between twelve and one o'clock, a bridge of copper
rises out of the lake, and the princess appears upon it,
sighing for her deliverance.1

The typical form of the tale is as follows : In the
Buchenberg by Doberan dwells an enchanted princess, who
can only be released once in a hundred years, on St.
John's Day between twelve and one. In the year 1818
a servant boy was watching sheep on the eastern side of
the Buchenberg the day before St. John's day. About
noon a white lady appeared to him and told him that he
could deliver her, if he would, the next day at the same
hour, kiss her. She would then come to him in the form
of a toad with a red band round its neck. The shepherd
promised ; but the next day when he saw the toad he was
so horrified that he ran away. A variant records the hour
as between twelve and one at night, and the form of the
lady as a snake which sought to twine round the shep-
1 Knoop, p. 10 ; Bartsch, vol. i. p. 273.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 239

herd's neck. A great treasure buried in the hill would
have been his had he stood the proof ; but now the lady
will have to wait until a beech tree shall have grown up
on the spot and been cut down, and of its timber a cradle
made : the child that is rocked in that cradle will have
power to save her. This is in effect the story told by
Sir John Maundeville concerning the daughter of
Hippocrates, the renowned physician, who was said to
have been enchanted by Diana on the island of Cos, or
(as he calls it) Lango, and given with so much of Mr.
William Morris' power in " The Earthly Paradise." *
" Then listen ! " says the damsel in the ruined castle
to the seaman whom she meets —

" Then listen ! when this day is overpast,

A fearful monster I shall be again,
And thou may'st be my saviour at the last,

Unless, once more, thy words are nought and vain ;

If thou of love and sovereignty art fain,
Come thou next morn, and when thou seest here
A hideous dragon, have thereof no fear,

" But take the loathsome head up in thine hands,

And kiss it, and be master presently
Of twice the wealth that is in all the lands,

From Cathay to the head of Italy ;

And master also, if it pleaseth thee,
Of all thou praisest as" so fresh and bright,
Of what thou callest crown of all delight.

******
" Ah, me ! to hold my child upon my knees,
After the weeping of unkindly tears,
And all the wrongs of these four hundred years."

But the horrible apparition of the dragon was too much
for the adventurer's courage :

" He cried out and wildly at her smote,
Shutting his eyes, and turned and from the place
Ran swiftly, with a white and ghastly face,"

1 Bartsch, vol. i. p. 271 ; "Early Trav.," p. 138.

240 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

to die within three days, a raving maniac. And

" Never any man again durst go
To seek her woman's form, and end her wo."

It would be too tedious to run through even a small
proportion of the examples of this tale, almost innumer-
able in Germany alone. Fortunately, it will only be
necessary to allude to a few of its chief features. When
the enchanted princess assumes a monstrous form, the
usual ordeal of the would-be deliverer is to kiss her. A
toad or a snake is, perhaps, her favourite form ; but
occasionally she is half woman, half toad, or half woman,
half snake. Further transformations now and then take
place, as from a snake into a fiery dog, or from a bear
into a lion, from a lion into a snake. Sometimes as a
bear alone she threatens her deliverer. In a Carinthian
saga he is to cut three birch rods at the full of the moon,
and then wait at the appointed place. The damsel
approaches in the guise of a snake, with a bunch of keys
in her mouth, and menaces him, hissing and snorting fire.
Unmoved by the creature's rage, he is to strike her thrice
on the head with each rod and take the keys from her
mouth. In the Duchy of Luxemburg the favourite form
assumed by the princess is that of a fire-breathing snake,
bearing in her mouth a bunch of keys, or a ring ; and
the deliverer's task then is to take the keys or ring away
with his own mouth. It is believed that Melusina, whose
story we shall deal with in the following chapters, is
enchanted beneath the Bockfels, a rock near the town of
Luxemburg. There she appears every seventh year in
human form and puts one stitch in a smock. When she
shall have finished sewing the smock she will be delivered ;
but woe then to the town ! for its ruins will be her grave
and monument. Men have often undertaken her earlier
deliverance. This is to be effected at midnight, when she
appears as a snake, by taking with the mouth a key

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 241

from her mouth and flinging it into the Alzet. No
one, however, has yet succeeded in doing this ; and
meantime when a calamity threatens the town, whose
faithful guardian she is, she gives warning by gliding
round the Bockfels uttering loud laments.1

But in many of the sagas the princess meets her hero
in her own proper shape, and then the feat to be per-
formed varies much more. In a Prussian tale she comes
out of a deep lake, which occupies the site of a once-
mighty castle, at sunset, clothed in black, and accompanied
by a black dog. The castle belonged to the young lady's
parents, who were wicked, though she herself was pious ;
and it was destroyed on account of their evil doings.
Since that time she has Avandered around, seeking some
bold and pious man who will follow her into the depths
of the lake, and thus remove the curse. This would seem
but another form of the tradition of the lake at the foot
of the Herthaburg on the isle of Riigen. In another
story the lady must be brought an unbaptized child to
kiss. In yet another the deliverer is led down through a
dark underground passage into a brilliantly lighted room,
where sit three black men writing at a table, and is
bidden to take one of two swords which lie on the table
and strike off the enchanted lady's head. To cut off the
head of a bewitched person is an effectual means of
destroying the spell. So, "in the Gaelic story of the

1 Bartsch, vol. i. pp. 269 (citing Niederhoflfer, below), 271,272, 273,
274, 318. In this last case it is a. man who is to be saved by a kiss
from a woman while he is in serpent form. Niederhoffer, vol. i.
pp. 58, 168, vol. ii. p. 235; Meier, pp. 6, 31, 321; Kuhn und
Schwartz, pp. 9, 201 ; Baring Gould, p. 223, citing Kornemann,
" Mons Veneris," and Froetorius, " Weltbcschieibung ; Jahn, p. 220 ;
Rappold, p. 135. Gredt, pp. 8, 9, 215, 228, &c. In one of Meier's
Swabian tales the princess appears as a snake and flings herself round
the neck of her would-be deliverer — a woman — who is to strike her
lightly with a bunch of juniper : Meier, p. 27. In one of Kuhn und
Schwartz' collection, where the princess becomes a toad, no ceremony
is prescribed : Kuhn und Schwartz, p. 9.

17

242 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Widow and her Daughters, the heroine decapitates the
horse-ogre, who thereupon returns to his true form as a
king's son, and marries her. A large number of parallel
instances might easily be given ; but they would lead
us too far afield. The lady of the Princess Hill, near
Warin, in Mecklenburg, has to be held fast from mid-
night until one o'clock in spite of all frightful apparitions
of snakes, dragons, and toads which crowd around and
threaten the adventurer. In the same way Peleus,
desiring to secure Thetis, had to hold her fast through
her various magical changes until she found resistance
useless, and returned to her true form. In a modern
Cretan tale the hero, by the advice of an old woman,
seizes at night a Nereid by the hair and holds her until
the cock crows, in spite of her changes successively into
a dog, a snake, a camel, and fire. The process of dis-
enchanting Tarn Lin, in the ballad of that name, was for
his lady-love to take him in her arms and hold him, not-
withstanding his transformation into a snake, a bear, a
lion, a red-hot iron, and lastly into a " burning gleed,"
when he was to be immediately flung into a well.1

We have already seen that the task is sometimes to
carry the maiden to a churchyard. At the Castle Hill of
Biitow she was to be carried to the Polish churchyard
and there thrown to the ground with all the deliverer's
might. A castle is said to have stood formerly on the
site of Budow Mill in Eastern Pomerania. An enchanted
princess now haunts the place. She is only to be freed
by a bachelor who will carry her in silence, and without
looking behind him, around the churchyard ; but the
spirits which hold her under their spell will seek in every
way to hinder her deliverance. On the Miiggelsberg is,
or was (for it is said to be now destroyed), a large stone
under which a treasure lies. It was called the Devil's

1 Von Tettau, p. 220 ; Kuhn, pp. 66, 99; Bartsch, vol. i. p. 272 ;
Jahn, p. 249 ; Ovid, " Metam." 1. xi. f. 5 ; Child, vol. i. pp. 336
(citing Schmidt, "Volkleben der Neugriechen," p. 115), 340.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 243

Altar ; and at night it often seemed, from the neighbour-
ing village of Muggelsheim, to be in a blaze ; but on
drawing near the fire would vanish from sight. At
Kopenick, another village not far off, it was called the
Princesses' Stone, but the lake at the foot of the hill was
called the Devil's Lake. The stone was said to occupy
the site of a castle, now enchanted and swallowed up in
the earth. Beneath it a hole ran deep into the mountain,
out of which a princess was sometimes of an evening seen
to come, with a casket of pure gold in her hand. He who
would carry her thrice round the church of Kopenick
without looking about him, would win the casket of gold
and deliver her. The names of the stone and of the
lake, as well as the attendant circumstances, are strong
evidence in favour of the conclusion that we have in this
superstition a relic of heathen times, and a record of
some divinity believed to reside at that spot. A princess,
clad in white and having a golden spinning-wheel in
her hand, was believed to appear on the Castle Hill at
Biesenthal, at midday. Once at midnight she appeared
to a gardener who had often heard voices at night
summoning him to the castle garden. At first he was
frightened at the vision, but at length consented to carry
her to the church, which stands near the hill. He took
her on his back ; but when he entered the churchyard
gate he suddenly met a carriage drawn by coal-black
horses, which vomited fire. So terrified was he that he
shrieked aloud, whereupon the carriage vanished, and the
princess flew away moaning : " For ever lost ! " In a
case where a prince had been enchanted, the feat was to
wrestle with him three nights in succession.1

But it was not always that so hard a task was set before
the deliverer. To our thinking, it says little for the
German way of doing business that the difficulty in un-

1 Knoop, pp. 6, 57 ; Kuhn, pp. 113, 172 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, p. i.
The prohibition to look back was imposed on Orpheus when he went
to rescue Eurydice from Hades.

244 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

spelling the castle near Lossin, and the maiden who
dwelt therein, was to buy a pair of shoes without
bargaining and cheapening their price, but to pay for
them exactly the piece of money which the maiden
handed to the youth who undertook the enterprise. In
another case a maiden Avas seen to scour a kettle at a
little lake. She was enchanted. The man who beheld
her thought the kettle would prove useful at his ap-
proaching wedding, and borrowed it on the express con-
dition of returning it at a fixed time. He failed to do so,
and the Evil One came and fetched it ; and the maiden
had to wait longer for her deliverance. There are stories
similar to this of fairies lending such articles on this
condition. If the condition be not complied with, the
fairies are never seen again. Aubrey relates that in the
vestry of Frensham Church, in Surrey, is a great kettle,
which was borrowed from the fairies who lived in the
Borough Hill, about a mile away. It was not returned
according to promise, and though afterwards taken back,
it was not received, nor since that time had there been
any borrowing there.1

A man who was in the habit of meeting in a certain
wood an adder, which always sneezed thrice as he passed,
consulted his parish priest on the subject. The priest
advised him to say the next time, as he would to a human
friend who sneezed : " God help thee ! " The man did
so, whereupon the adder shot forth before him with fiery
body and terrible rattling, so startling him that he
turned and fled. The snake hurried after him, crying
out that it would not hurt him, but that if he would take
(not, however, with naked hands) the bunch of keys that
hung about its neck, it would then lead the way to a
great treasure and make him happy. He turned a deaf
ear to these entreaties ; and as he ran away he heard the
snake exclaim that now it must remain enchanted until

1 Knoop, pp. 51, 59; Keightley, p. 295, quoting Aubrey's "Natural
History of Surrey " ; " Gent. Mag. Lib." (Pop. Supers.), p. 280.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 245

yon little oak tree had grown great, and a cradle had been
made out of the timber : the first child that lay in that
cradle would be able to deliver it. The same incident
reappears in another saga, in which some men passing
through the forest hear a sneeze, and one of them says :
" God help thee ! " The sneeze and the blessing are
repeated ; but when the sneeze was heard a third time,
the man exclaimed : " Oh, go to the devil ! " "I believe
somebody is making game of us," said another. But a
mannikin stepped forward and said : " If you had said a
third time ' God help thee ! ' I should have been saved.
Now I must wait until an acorn falls from yonder
tree and becomes an oak, and a cradle is made out of its
timber. The child that comes to lie in that cradle will
be able to deliver me." In this case all that was required
was a thrice-repeated blessing. Another curious means
of deliverance is found in a story from Old Strelitz.
There an enchanted princess haunted a bridge a short
distance from one of the gates of the town, on the road
to Woldegk. Whoever in going over this bridge uttered
a certain word, could unspell her if he would afterwards
allow her to walk beside him the rest of the way over the
bridge without speaking ; but the difficulty was that
nobody knew what the powerful word was.1

Two other legends may be noticed on the mode of
undoing the spell. The White Lady who haunts the
White Tower on the White Hill at Prague was married
to a king. She betrayed him, and married his enemy,
from whom she subsequently fled with an officer of his
army. She was, however, caught, and walled up in the
White Tower. From this she may be delivered if she can
find any one who will allow her to give him three stabs
in the breast with a bayonet without uttering a sound.
Once she prevailed on a young recruit, who was placed
as sentinel before the magazine of the castle, to stand the
necessary trial ; but on receiving the first blow he could
1 Meier, pp. 209, 87 ; NiederhofTer, vol. iii, p. 251,

246 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

not forbear cry ing aloud : " Jesus! Mary! thouhast given
it me ! " Another old castle in Bohemia has twelve
ladies enchanted by day as fish in the fountain of the
castle garden, and appearing only at night in their true
shape. They can not be disenchanted unless by twelve
men who will remain in the castle for twelve months
without once going outside the walls.1

These bring us to a number of mtirchcn in which the
bespelled heroine is released by a youth who suffers
torture on her account. The Transylvanian gipsies tell
a tale of a very poor man who, instructed by a dream,
climbed a certain mountain and found a beautiful maiden
before a cavern, spinning her own golden hair. She had
been sold by her heartless parents to an evil spirit, who
compelled her to this labour ; but she could be saved if
she could find any one willing to undergo in silence, for
her sake, an hour's torture from the evil spirit on three
successive nights. The man expressed himself ready to
make the attempt ; he entered the cave, and at midnight
a gigantic Prikulich, or evil spirit, appeared, and
questioned him as to who he was and what he wanted
there. Failing to get any reply, the Prikulich flung him
to the ground and danced about madly on him. The
man endured without a moan ; and at one o'clock the
Prikulich disappeared. The second night the man was
beaten with a heavy hammer, and so tortured that the
maiden had great difficulty in persuading him to stand
the third proof. While she was praying him, however, to
stay, the Prikulich appeared the third time, and beat him
again with the hammer until he was half dead. Then
the goblin made a fire and flung him into it. The poor
fellow uttered not a single sound, in spite of all this
torment ; and the maiden was saved and wedded her
deliverer. This is a tale by no means uncommon. Want
of space forbids us to follow it in detail, but a few
references in the note below will enable the reader to do
1 Grohmann, pp. 56, 50.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 247

so if he please. Meantime, I will only say that sometimes
the princess who is thus to be rescued is enchanted in the
form of a snake, sometimes of a she-goat, sometimes of a
bird ; and in one of the stories she herself, in the shape
of a monster like a hedgehog, comes out of a coffin to tear
the hero in pieces.1 The group is allied, on the one
hand, to that of Fearless Johnny who, passing the night
in a haunted house, expelled the ghosts, or goblins, which
had taken possession of it ; on the other hand, to that of
the Briar Rose, illustrated by Mr. Burne Jones' series of
paintings.

The Briar Rose, or The Beauty of Sleeping Wood, as
it comes to us from Perrault's hands, is the story of a
maiden who was cursed by an offended fairy to pierce
her hand with a spindle and to die of it — a curse after-
wards mitigated into a sleep of a hundred years. Every
effort was made by the king, her father, to avert the
doom, but in vain ; and for a whole century the princess
and all her court remained in the castle in a magical
sleep, while the castle itself and all within it were
protected from intrusion by an equally magical growth
of brambles and thorns, which not only prevented access,
but entirely hid it from view. At length a king's son
found his way in at the very moment the fated period
came to an end ; or, as we have it in other versions, he
awakened the maiden with a kiss. In the old stories of
the Niblungs and the Volsungs Odin has pricked the
shield-maid Brynhild with a sleep-thorn, and thus con-
demned her to sleep within the shield-burg on Hindfell.
Attracted by the appearance of fire, Sigurd comes to the
shield-burg and, finding Brynhild, releases her from her
slumber by ripping up her armour with his sword. This
is chronologically the earliest form of the myth of the
Enchanted Princess with which we are acquainted ; and

1 Von Wlislockl, p. 76 ; Campbell, vol. ii. p. 293 ; Luzel, " Contes,"
vol. i. pp. 198,217; "Annuaire des Trad. Pop." 1887, p. 53; Pitre,
vol. v. pp. 238, 248 ; Grundtvig, vol. i. p. 148 ; Schneller, pp. 103, 109.

248 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

it is interwoven with the very fibres of the Teutonic
mythology. It is no wonder, therefore, that the Germans
have given it so prominent a place in their folk-lore.
So far as now appears it is less conspicuous in the folk-
lore of the other European races with the exception of
the Slaves, and when it does show itself it shows itself
chiefly as a mcirchcn. But, although what we know of
the folk-lore of the Teutonic and Slavonic races may sug-
gest reasons for this, we must not forget how rarely we
can dogmatize with safety on national characteristics.
To this rule the folk-lore of a nation is no exception ;
nay, rather, the rule applies with a double emphasis
to a subject the scientific investigation of which has so
lately begun and has yet achieved so little.

Declining this speculation, therefore, we turn to a last
point in the sagas before us, namely, the propitious time
for the disenchantment. Different times of the year are
spoken of for this purpose. In some stories it is Advent,
or New Year's night, when the lady makes her appear-
ance and may be delivered. In a Pomeranian saga,
where a woman cursed her seven daughters and they
became mice, a woman, who is of the same age as the
mother when she uttered the curse, must come with
seven sons of the same ages as the daughters were when
they were cursed, on Good Friday at noon, to the thicket
where the mice are, and put her sons on a certain round
stone there. The seven mice will then return to human
shape ; and when the children are old enough they will
marry, and become rich and happy for the rest of their
lives. A Carinthian tale requires the deliverer to come
the next full moon after "May-Sunday" ; and May-night
is the date fixed in another case. But the favourite time
is St. John's Day, either at noon or midnight.1 Some of

1 Meier, p. 26; Bartsch, vol. i. pp. 271, 272, 274; Jahn, p. 185;
Rappold, p. 135; Bartsch, vol. i. pp. 269, 270, 271, 272, 273,
283, 308, 318 ; Niederhoffer, vol. i. p. 168, vol. ii. p. 235, vol. iii. p.
171 ; Knoop, p. 10 ; Jahn, pp. 182, 185, 206, 207, 217, 220, 221 ; and
many others.

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 249

these days are ecclesiastical festivals ; but perhaps the
only one which has not superseded an ancient heathen
feast is Good Friday. The policy of the Church, in
consecrating to Christian uses as many as possible of
the seasons and customs she found already honoured
among the peoples she had conquered, seized upon their
holy days and made them her own. And if the science
of Folk-lore has taught us anything, it is that the observ-
ances on these converted holy days external to the rites
demanded by the Church are relics of the ceremonies
performed in pagan days to pagan deities. In none of
these instances has the proof been more conclusive than
in that of St. John's, or Midsummer Day. Grimm, first,
with abundant learning, and more recently Mr. Frazer,
with a wealth of illustration surpassing that of Grimm
himself, and indeed inaccessible in his day, have shown
that the Midsummer festival was kept in honour of the
sun ; that it consisted of the ceremonial kindling of fire,
the gathering and use of floral garlands, the offering of
human and other sacrifices, and the performance of sacred
dances ; and that its object was to increase the power of
the sun by magical sympathy, to obtain a good harvest
and fruitfulness of all creatures, and to purge the sins of
the people. It was, in fact, the chief ceremony of the
year among the European races.

Prominent among the remnants of these ceremonies
continued down to modern days are the Midsummer
bonfires. These were lighted on the tops of mountains,
hills, or even barrows. This situation may be thought
to have symbolic reference to the solstice ; but probably
a still more powerful reason for it was the already sacred
character of such places. But we need hardly consider
whether the ceremonies of which the bonfires are the
remnant, were observed on the hill-tops and other high
places because the latter were already sacred, or, con-
versely, the hill tops and other high places were held
sacred because of the ceremonies enacted there ; for in

250 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

either case the sanctity remains. Wells and pools, too,
many of them still held sacred, were in various ways the
objects of superstition at the Midsummer festival ; for
which the Church, when she chose to take the practices
under her protection, had an ample excuse in St. John's
mission to baptize.1 Now, whatever spots were the haunt
of pagan divinities, there it was doubtless that those divi-
nities were expected to appear ; and by the same reasoning
they would be most likely to appear during the favoured
hours of the holy days. This is exactly what we find to
be the case with Enchanted Princesses, and, so far as the
days are recorded, with Sleeping Heroes. The heroes lie
within the hills, which in many legends are only open
on certain days. The princesses appear upon the hills,
or by the sides of pools, the sites, if we believe the
legends, of ancient castles where they dwelt. Once in
the year, or once in a cycle of years, on a certain day,
usually Midsummer Day or Midsummer Eve, they come
to wash, or to fetch water, in their own form, either
compelled or permitted by the terms of the curse that
has bound them ; and then it is that mortals are admitted
to an interview and may render them the service of dis-
enchantment. The instances in which the days are
specified are so frequent we may perhaps suspect that
they were originally mentioned in all, but that time and
other circumstances have caused them to be forgotten.
However this may be, it is only reasonable to conclude
that, in the number of instances remaining, we have a
tradition of the honours long ago paid to these degraded
divinities on the days appointed for their worship.

1 "Gent. Mag. Lib." (Pop. Superst.) p. 51 ; Brand, vol. i. p. 250,
note; Pitre, vol. xii. pp. 304, 307; Bartsch, vol. ii. p. 288; "Anti-
quary," vol. xxi. p. 195, vol. xxii. p. 67. Cf. a. legend in which the
scene haunted by the enchanted lady is a Johannisberg on the top of
which is a chapel dedicated to St. John the Baptist, to which pilgrim-
ages were made and the lady appeared on Midsummer Day (Gredt,
pp. 215, 219, 225, 579).

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 251

I may be going too far in suggesting that the feats to
be performed afford some confirmation of this conclusion ;
yet it seems to me there is much to be said for such an
opinion. The appearance of a god in animal form —
even in a loathsome animal form — would not derogate
from his essential godhead. Where in these stories the
deliverer has to deal with an animal, a kiss is the usual
task prescribed. Kissing is a very ancient and well-
known act of worship, which survives among us in many
a practice of the Roman Catholic Church, as well as in
the form of oath taken daily in our law courts ; and it
may be that the more repulsive the object to be kissed,
the greater the merit of kissing it. Again, the lady who
required to be followed into the depths of a lake may be
matched with the goddess Hertha, whose slaves were
drowned in the self-same waters wherein they had
washed her ; nor does it seem more menial to carry a
princess than to wash a goddess. The ceremony of
carrying may indeed be the relic of a solemn procession,
or of a sacred drama. The words of blessing following
on a sneeze need no explanation ; and the omission to
return at the promised time a borrowed kettle would be
more likely to provoke the anger of a god than to retard
the deliverance of a mortal. This is implied by the
statement that the devil fetched the kettle himself ; and
we need have little doubt that in an earlier form the
story so described it. I am unable to explain the
unknown word which would deliver the lady who
haunted the bridge at Old Strelitz, unless it be a
reminiscence of an incantation.

There remain the demand for an unbaptized child to
kiss, the torture to which the heroes of the two Bohemian
sagas submit, the requirement in the Pomeranian tale to
place seven brothers on the stone haunted by the seven
mice, and lastly the personal violence to the damsel
involved in striking her with a birch-rod or a bunch of
juniper and in beheadal. In all these we probably have

252 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

traces of sacrifice. The offering of an innocent child is
familiar, if not comprehensible, enough to any one who
has the most superficial acquaintance with savage rites.
We have already seen that an unbaptized child is regarded
as a pagan, and is an object of desire on the part of super-
natural beings. The same reasons which induce fairies
to steal it would probably render it an acceptable offering
to a pagan divinity. No words need be wasted on the
torture, or the tale of the mice. But the personal
violence, if indeed the remnant of a tradition of sacrifice,
involves the slaughter of the divinity herself. This
might be thought an insuperable objection ; but it is
not really so. For, however absurd it may seem to us,
it is a very widespread custom to sacrifice to a divinity
his living representative or incarnation, whether in
animal or human form. It is believed in such cases that
the victim's spirit, released by sacrifice, forthwith finds a
home in another body. The subject is too vast and
complex to be discussed here at length ; the reader who
desires to follow it out can do so in Mr. Frazer's pro-
foundly interesting work on "The Golden Bough."
Assuming, however, the custom and belief, as here
stated, to be admitted, it will be seen that the underlying
thought is precisely that which we want in order to
explain this mode of disenchantment. For if, on the
one hand, what looks like murder be enjoined in a
number of stories for the purpose of disenchanting a
bewitched person ; and if, on the other hand, the result
of solemnly slaughtering a victim be in fact held to be
simply the release of the victim's spirit — nay, if it was
the prescribed mode of releasing that spirit — to seek a
new, sometimes a better, abode in a fresh body, we
may surely be satisfied that both these have the same
origin. We may then, go further, and see in this
unspelling incident, performed, as in the Enchanted
Princess stories, in this way, at a haunted spot, fre-
quently on a day of special sanctity, one more proof that

THE SUPERNATURAL LAPSE OF TIME IN FAIRYLAND. 253

the princess herself was in the earlier shape of the
traditions no other than a goddess.

Finally : the myth of the Enchanted Princess has pre-
served in many of its variants a detail more archaic than
any in that of the Sleeping Hero, and one which is decisive
as to the lady's real status. If Frederick were to arise and
come forth from his sleeping-place, the Kyffhaiiser itself
would remain. If Arthur were to awake and quit the
Castle Rock, the rock itself wherein he lay would still
be there. But the lake or mountain haunted by an
enchanted maiden often owes its very existence, if not to
her, at least to the spell which holds her enthralled.
When she is delivered the place will be changed : the
lake will give way to a palace ; the earth will open and a
buried castle will reascend to the surface ; what is now
nothing but an old grey boulder will forthwith return to
its previous condition of an inhabited and stately building ;
or what is now a dwelling of men will become desolate.
One of the best examples of this is the superstition I have
already cited concerning Melusina. When she finishes
her needlework she will be disenchanted, but only to die ;
and the ruins of the town of Luxemburg will be her
grave and monument. In other words, the existence of
the town is bound up with her enchantment, — that is to
say, with her life. In the same way the bespelled damsel
of the Urschelberg, near Pfullingen, in Swabia, is called
by the very name of the mountain — the Old Urschel.
This can only be the survival of a belief in the enchanted
lady as the indwelling spirit, the soul, the real life of the
spot she haunted : a belief which goes back to a deeper
depth of savagery than one that regards her as a local
goddess, and out of which the latter would be easily
developed.1

1 Von Tettau, p. 220 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, pp. 9, 200 ; Meier, pp. 6,
8 ; Greek, pp. 7, 228, 281. In another story, quoted by Meier (p. 34),
from Crusius' "Schwab. Chron.", the enchanted maiden is called "a
heathen's daughter :' — pointing directly to pagan origin.

254 THE SCIENCE OP FAIRY TALES.

These considerations by no means exhaust the case ;
but I have said enough in support of conclusions anti-
cipated by Grimm's clear-sighted genius and confirmed
by every fresh discovery. Let me, therefore, recapitulate
the results of the investigations contained in this and the
two preceding chapters. We have rapidly examined
several types of fairy tales in which the hero, detained
in Fairyland, is unconscious of the flight of time. These
tales are characteristic of a high rather than a low stage
of civilization. Connected with them we have found the
story of King Arthur, the Sleeping Hero, " rex quondam,
rex que futurus" the expected deliverer, sometimes be-
lieved to be hidden beneath the hills, at other times in
a far-off land, or from time to time traversing the world
with his band of attendants as the Wild Hunt. This
is a tradition of a heathen god put down by Christianity,
but not destroyed in the hearts and memories of the
people — a tradition independent of political influences,
but to which oppression is apt to give special and
enduring vitality. The corresponding tradition con-
cerning a heathen goddess is discovered in the Enchanted
Princess of a thousand sagas, whose peculiar home, if
they have one, is in Teutonic and Slavonic countries.

CHAPTER X.

SWAN-MAIDENS.

The inarchen of Hasan of Bassorah — The Marquis of the Sun — The
feather robe and other disguises — The taboo — The Star's Daughter
— Melusina — The Lady of the Van Pool and other variants — The
Nightmare.

THE narratives with which we have hitherto been occu-
pied belong to the class called Sagas. But our discussions
of them have led us once and again to refer to the other
class mentioned in the second Chapter — that of Nursery
Tales or Marchen. For, as I have already pointed out,
there is no bridgeless gulf between them. We have
seen the very same incidents narrated in Wales or in
Germany with breathless awe as a veritable occurrence
which in India, or among the Arabs, are a mere play of
fancy. Equally well the case may be reversed, and what
is gravely told at the antipodes as a series of events in
the life of a Maori ancestor, may be reported in France
or England as a nursery tale. Nay, we need not go out
of Europe itself to find the same plot serving for a saga
in one land and a marc hen, detached from all circumstances
of time and place, in another.

An excellent example of this is furnished by the myth
of the Swan-maiden, one of the most widely distributed,
and at the same time one of the most beautiful, stories
ever evolved from the mind of man. As its first type
I shall take the tale of Hasan of Bassorah, where it has
been treated with an epic grandeur hardly surpassed by
any of its companions in the famous " Nights," and

256 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

perhaps only by one of the less famous but equally
splendid Mabinogion of old Wales.

Hasan is a worthless boy who falls under the influence
of a Magian, who professes to be an alchemist, and who
at length kidnaps him. Having used him with great
cruelty the Magian takes him fifteen days' journey on
dromedaries into the desert to a high mountain, at the
foot whereof the old rascal sews him up in a skin,
together with a knife and a small provision of three
cakes and a leathern bottle of water, afterwards retiring
to a distance. One of the vultures which infest the
mountain then pounces on Hasan and carries him to
the top. In accordance with the Magian's instructions,
the hero, on arriving there, slits the skin, and jumping
out, to the bird's affright, picks up and casts down to the
Magian bundles of the wood which he finds around him.
This wood is the means by which the alchemy is per-
formed ; and having gathered up the bundles the Magian
leaves Hasan to his fate. The youth, after despairing of
life, finds his way to a palace where dwell seven maidens,
with whom he remains for awhile in Platonic friendship.
When they are summoned away by their father for a
two months' absence, they leave him their keys, straitly
charging him not to open a certain door. He disregards
their wishes, and finds within a magnificent pavilion
enclosing a basin brimful of water, at which ten birds
come to bathe and play. The birds for this purpose
cast their feathers ; and Hasan is favoured with the sight
of " ten virgins, maids whose beauty shamed the
brilliancy of the moon." He fell madly in love with
the chief damsel, who turns out to be a daughter of a
King of the Jann. On the return of the maidens of
the palace he is advised by them to watch the next time
the birds come, and to take possession of the feather-
suit belonging to the damsel of his choice, for without
this she cannot return home with her attendants. He
succeeds in doing so, and thus compels her to remain

SWAN-MAIDENS. 257

with him and become his wife. With her he departs to
his own country and settles in Bagdad, where his wife
bears him two sons. During his temporary absence,
however, she persuades her mother-in-law — who, un-
fortunately for the happiness of the household, lives
with the young couple — to let her have the feather-suit
which her husband has left under her charge. Clad
with this she takes her two boys in her arms and sails
away through the air to the islands of Wak, leaving a
message for the hapless Hasan that if he loves her he
may come and seek her there. Now the islands of
Wak were seven islands, wherein was a mighty host,
all virgin girls, and the inner isles were peopled by
satans and marids and warlocks and various tribesmen
of the Jinn, and whoso entered their land never returned
thence ; and Hasan's wife was one of the king's daughters.
To reach her he would have to cross seven wadys and
seven seas and seven mighty mountains. Undaunted,
however, by the difficulties wherewith he is threatened,
he determines to find her, swearing by Allah never to
turn back till he regain his beloved, or till death over-
take him. By the help of sundry potentates of more or
less forbidding aspect and supernatural power, to whom
he gets letters of introduction, and who live in gorgeous
palaces amid deserts, and are served by demons only
uglier and less mighty than, themselves, he succeeds in
traversing the Land of Birds, the Land of Wild Beasts,
the country of the Warlocks and the Enchanters, and
the Land of the Jinn, and enters the islands of Wak —
there to fall into the hands of that masterful virago, his
wife's eldest sister. After a preliminary outburst against
Hasan, this amiable creature pours, as is the wont of
women, the full torrent of her wrath against her erring
sister. From the tortures she inflicts, Hasan at length
rescues his wife, with their two sons, by means of a cap
of invisibility and a rod conferring authority over seven
tribss of the Jinn, which he has stolen from two boys

18

258 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

who are quarrelling over them. When his sister-in-law
with an army of Jinn pursues the fugitives, the subjects
of the rod overcome her. His wife begs for her sister's
life and reconciles her husband to her, and then returns
with her husband to his home in Bagdad, to quit him
no more.1

Such in meagre outline is this wonderful story. Its
variants are legion, and I can only refer to a few of them
which are of special interest. In dealing with these I
shall confine my attention to the essential points of the
plot, touching only such details as are germane to the
questions thus evoked. We shall accordingly pass in
review the maiden's disguise and capture, her flight and
her recapture ; and afterwards turning to other types of
ths tale, we shall look at the corresponding incidents to
be met with therein, reserving for another chapter the
consideration of the meaning of the myth, so far as it
can be traced.

The bird whose shape is assumed by the Jinn in the
foregoing tale is not specified ; but in Europe, where
beauty and grace and purity find so apt an emblem in
the swan, several of the most important variants have
naturally appropriated that majestic form to the heroine,
and have thus given a name to the whole group of
stories. In Sweden, for example, we are told of a young
hunter who beheld three swans descend on the sea-shore
and lay their plumage aside before they plunged into
the water. When he looked at the robes so laid aside
they appeared like linen, and the forms that were
swimming in the waves were damsels of dazzling white-
ness. Advised by his foster-mother, he secures the linen
of the youngest and fairest. She, therefore, could not
follow her companions when they drew on their plumage
and flew away ; and being thus in the hunter's power, she
became his wife. The hero of a story current among
the Germans of Transylvania opens, like Hasan, a for-
1 Burton, " Nights," vol. viii. p. 7.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 259

bidden door, and finds three swan-maids bathing in a
blue pool. Their clothes are contained in satchels on
its margin, and when he has taken the satchel of the
youngest he must not look behind until he has reached
home. This done, he finds the maiden there and
persuades her to marry him. Mikailo Ivanovich, the
hero of a popular Russian ballad, wanders by the sea,
and, gazing out upon a quiet bay, beholds a white swan
floating there. He draws his bow to shoot her, but she
prays him to desist ; and rising over the blue sea upon
her white wings, she turns into a beautiful maiden.
Surprised with love, he offers to kiss her ; but she reveals
herself as a heathen princess and demands first to be
baptized, and then she will wed him. In a Hessian story
a forester sees a fair swan floating on a lonely lake. He
is about to shoot it when it warns him to desist, or it
will cost him his life. Immediately the swan was trans-
formed into a maiden, who told him she was bewitched,
but could be freed if he would say a Paternoster for her
every Sunday for a twelvemonth, and meantime keep
silence concerning his adventure. The test proved too
hard, and he lost her.1

The swan, however, by no means monopolizes the
honour of concealing the heroine's form. In a Finnish
tale from QEsterbotten, a dead father appears in dreams
to his three sons, commanding them to watch singly by
night the geese on the sea-strand. The two elder are so

1 Thorpe, vol. ii. p. 69, quoting Afzelius; Haltrich, p. 15; Ilapgood,
p. 214 ; Meier, " Volksmarchen," p. 39 ; Baring-Gould, p. 575. No
authority is given by Mr. Baring-Gould, and I have been unable to
trace the Hessian tale; but I rely on his correctness. lie also cites
an incoherent Swan-maiden tale from Castren, of which he manages to
make more sense than I can (Castren, " Altaischen \?61ker," p. 172).
In an Irish tale Oengus, the son of the Dagda, falls in love, through
a dream, with Caer ib Ormaith, who is one year in the form of a swan
and the next in human shape. After union with her he seems to
have undergone the same alternation of form (Kevtte Celtique, vol. iii.
p. 342, from a MS. in the British Museum).

260 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

frightened by ths darkness that they scamper home.
But the youngest, despised and dirty, watches boldly,
till at the first flush of dawn three geese fly thither,
strip off their feathers, and plunge, as lovely maidens,
into the water to bathe. Then the youth chooses the
most beautiful of the three pairs of wings he finds on
the shore, hides them, and awaits events ; nor does he
give them up again to the owner until she has betrothed
herself to him. Elsewhere the damsels are described as
ducks ; but a more common shape is that of doves. A
story is current in Bohemia of a boy whom a witch leads
to a spring. Over the spring stands an old elm-tree
haunted by three white doves, who are enchanted prin:
cesses. Catching one and plucking out her wings, he
restores her to her natural condition ; and she brings him
to his parents, whom he had lost in the sack of the city
where they dwelt. The Magyars speak of three pigeons
coming every noontide to a great white lake, where they
turn somersaults and are transformed into girls. They
are really fairy-maidens ; and a boy who can steal the
dress of one of them and run away with it, resisting the
temptation to look back when she calls in caressing
tones, succeeds in winning her. In the " Bahar Danush "
a merchant's son perceives four doves alight at sunset
by a piece of water, and, resuming their natural form
(for they are Peries), forthwith undress and plunge into
the water. He steals their clothes, and thus compels
the one whom he chooses to accept him as her husband.
The extravagance characteristic of the " Arabian Nights,"
when, in the story of Janshah, it represents the ladies as
doves, expands their figures to the size of eagles, with
far less effect, however, than where they retain more
moderate dimensions. No better illustration of this can
be given than the story from South Smaland of the fair
Castle east of the Sun and north of the Earth, versified so
exquisitely in "The Earthly Paradise.'' There a peasant,
finding that the fine grass of a meadow belonging to him

SWAN-MAIDENS. 261

was constantly trodden down during the summer nights,
set his three sons, one after another, to watch for the
trespassers. The two elder, as usual in these tales, are
unsuccessful, but the youngest keeps wide awake until
the sun is about to rise. A rustling in the air, as of
birds, then heralds the flight of three doves, who cast
their feathers and become fair maidens. These maidens
begin to dance on the green grass, and so featly do they
step that they scarce seem to touch the ground. To the
watching youth, one among them looked more beautiful
than all other Avomen ; and he pictured to himself the
possession of her as more to be longed for than that of
every other in the world. So he rose and stole their
plumage, nor did he restore it until the king's daughter,
the fairest of them all, had plighted her troth to him.1

The story is by no means confined to Europe and Asia.
The Arawaks, one of the aboriginal tribes of Guiana,
relate that a beautiful royal vulture was once captured by
a hunter. She was the daughter of Anuanima, sovereign
of a race whose country is above the sky, and who lay
aside there the appearance of birds for that of humanity.
Smitten Avith love for the hunter, the captive divested
herself of her feathers and exhibited her true form —
that of a beautiful girl. " She becomes his wife, bears
him above the clouds, and,, after much trouble, persuades
her father and family to receive him. All then goes well,
until he expresses a wish to visit his aged mother, when
they discard him, and set him on the top of a very high
tree, the trunk of which is covered with formidable
prickles. He appeals pathetically to all the living
creatures around. Then spiders spin cords to help him,

1 Schreck, p. 35 ; Vernaleken, pp. 274, 287 ; Jones and Kropf, p.
95 ; " Bahar-Danush," vol. ii. p. 213 (an abstract of this story will be
found in Keightley, p. 20) ; Burton, "Nights," vol. v. p. 344; Steere,
p. 349; Cavallius, p. 175, freely translated by Thorpe, "Yule-tide
Stories," p. 158. Mr. Morris turns the doves into swans. Cf, a South-
Slavonic tale from Varazdina, Krauss, vol. i. p. 409.

262 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and fluttering birds ease his descent, so that at last he
reaches the ground in safety. Then follow his efforts,
extending over several years, to regain his wife, whom he
tenderly loves. Her family seek to destroy him ; but
by his strength and sagacity he is victorious in every
encounter. The birds at length espouse his cause,
assemble their forces, and bear him as their commander
above the sky. He is at last slain by a valiant young
warrior, resembling himself in person and features. It
is his own son, born after his expulsion from the upper
regions, and brought up there in ignorance of his own
father. The legend ends with the conflagration of the
house of the royal vultures, who, hemmed in by crowds
of hostile birds, are unable to use their wings, and forced
to fight and die in their human forms." I This tale, so
primitive in form, can hardly have travelled round half
the globe to the remote American Indians among whom
it was discovered. And yet in many of its features it
presents the most striking likeness to several of the
versions current in the Old World.

Sometimes, however, as in the tale of Hasan, the
species is left undescribed. Among the Eskimo the
heroine is vaguely referred to as a sea-fowl. The Kurds
have a strange tale of a bird they call the Bird Simer.
His daughter has been ensnared by a giant when she and
three other birds were out flying ; but she is at length
rescued by two heroes, one of whom she weds. When she
becomes homesick she puts on her feather-dress and flies
away.2

A Pomeranian saga forms an interesting link between
the Swan-maiden group and the legends of Enchanted
Princesses discussed in the last chapter. A huntsman,
going his rounds in the forest, drew near a pool which
lies at the foot of the Hiihnerberg. There he saw a girl

1 Brett, " Legends and Myths," p. 29. This legend is told with
further details by Im Thurn, p. 381.

2 Rink, p. 145 ; Prym und Socin, p. 51.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 263

bathing ; and thinking that she was from the neighbour-
ing village, he picked up her clothes, with the intention
of playing her a trick. When she saw what he had done,
she left the water and hastened after him, begging him to
give back her clothes — or at any rate her shift. He,
however, was not to be moved ; and she then told him
she was an enchanted princess, and without her shift she
could not return. Now he was fully determined not to
give up the precious article of apparel. She was, there-
fore, compelled to follow him to his hut, where his mother
kept house for him. The huntsman there put the shift
into a chest, of which he took the key, so that the
maiden could not escape ; and after some time she
accepted the position, and agreed to become his wife.
Years passed by, and several children had been born,
when one day he went out, leaving the key of the chest
behind. When the heroine saw this she begged her
mother-in-law to open the chest and show her the shift ;
for, we are told, the enchanted princess could not herself
open the trunk. She begged so hard that her mother-
in-law at last complied ; and no sooner had she got the
shift into her hands than she vanished out of sight.
When the husband returned and heard what had hap-
pened, he made up his mind to seek her. So he climbed
the Hiihnerberg and let himself down the opening he
found there. He soon arrived at the underground castle.
Before its closed gate lay a great black dog, around whose
neck a paper hung which conveniently contained direc-
tions how to penetrate into the castle. Following these,
he presently found himself in the presence of the
princess, his wife, who was right glad to see him, and
gave him a glass of wine to strengthen him for the task
before him ; for at midnight the Evil One would come
to drive him out of the castle and prevent the lady's
deliverance. At this point, unfortunately, the reciter's
memory failed : hence we do not know the details of the
rescue. But we may conjecture, from the precedents,

264 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRV TALES.

that the huntsman had to endure torture. The issue
was that he was successful, the castle ascended out of the
earth, and husband and wife were reunited.1

This story differs in many important respects from the
type ; and it contains the incident, very rare in a modern
European saga belonging to this group, of the recovery
of the bride. I shall have occasion to revert to the
curious inability of the enchanted princess to open the
chest containing the wonderful shift. Meanwhile, let me
observe that in most of the tales the feather-dress, or
talisman, by which the bride may escape, is committed
to the care of a third person — usually a kinswoman of
the husband, and in many cases his mother ; and that the
wife as a rule only recovers it when it is given to her, or
at least when that which contains it has been opened by
another : she seems incapable of finding it herself.

There is another type of the Swan-maiden myth,
which appears to be the favourite of the Latin nations,
though it is also to be met with among other peoples.
Its outline may, perhaps, best be given from the nursery
tale of the Marquis of the Sun, as told at Seville. The
Marquis of the Sun was a great gamester. A man
played with him and lost all he had, and then staked his
soul — and lost it. The Marquis instructed him, if he
desired to recover it, to come to him when he had worn
out a pair of iron shoes. In the course of his wanderings
he finds a struggle going on over a dead man, whose
creditors would not allow him to be buried until his debts
had been paid. Iron Shoes pays them, and one shoe goes
to pieces. He afterwards meets a cavalier, who reveals
himself as the dead man whose debts had been paid, and
who is desirous of requiting that favour. He therefore
directs Iron Shoes to the banks of a river where three
white doves come, change into princesses, and bathe.
Iron Shoes is to take the dress of the smallest, and thus
get her to tell him whither he has to go. Obeying this
' Knoop, p. 104.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 265

direction, he learns from the princess that the Marquis is
her father ; and she shows him the way to his castle.
Arrived there, he demands his soul. Before conceding it
the Marquis sets him tasks : to level an inconvenient
mountain, so that the sun may shine on the castle ; to
sow the site of the mountain with fruit trees, and gather
the fruit of them in one day for dinner ; to find a piece of
plate which the Marquis's great-grandfather had dropped
into the river ; to catch and mount a horse which is no
other than the Marquis himself ; and to choose a bride
from among the princesses, his daughters. The damsel
who had shown Iron Shoes the way to the palace per-
forms the first two of these tasks : and she teaches him
how to perform the others. For the third, he has to
cut her up and cast her into the river, whence she imme-
diately rises whole again, triumphantly bringing the lost
piece of plate. In butchering her he has, however,
clumsily dropped a piece of her little finger on the
ground. It is accordingly wanting when she rises from
the river; and this is the token by which Iron Shoes
recognizes her when he has to choose a bride ; for, in
choosing, he is only allowed to see the little fingers of
these candidates for matrimony. He and his bride after-
wards flee from the castle ; but we need not follow their
adventures now.1

In stories of this type doves are the shape usually
assumed by the heroine and her comrades ; but swans
and geese are often found, and in a Russian tale we are
even introduced to spoonbills. Nor do the birds I have
mentioned by any means exhaust the disguises of these
supernatural ladies. The stories comprised under this
and the foregoing type are nearly all mdrchen ; but
when we come to other types where sagas become more
numerous, we find other animals favoured, well-nigh to
the exclusion of birds. In the latter types there is no
recovery of the wife when she has once abandoned her
1 " F- L. Espan." vol. i. p. 187.

266 TIII: SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

husband. An inhabitant of Unst, cne of the Shetland
Islands, beholds a number of the sea-folk dancing by
moonlight on the shore of a small bay. Near them lie
several seal-skins. He snatches up one, the property, as
it turns out, of a fair maiden, who thereupon becomes
his wife. Years after, one of their children finds her
sealskin, and runs to display it to his mother, not
knowing it Avas hers. She puts it on, becomes a seal,
and plunges into the waters. In Croatia it is said
that a soldier once, watching in a haunted mill, saw
a she-wolf enter, divest herself of her skin, and come
out of it a damsel. She hangs the skin on a peg and
goes to sleep before the fire. While she sleeps the soldier
takes the skin and nails it fast to the mill-wheel, so
that she cannot recover it. He marries her, and she
bears him two sons. The elder of these children hears
that his mother is a wolf. He becomes inquisitive, and
his father at length tells him where the skin is. When
he tells his mother, she goes away and is heard of no
more. A Sutherlandshire story speaks of a mermaid
who fell in love with a fisherman. As he did not want
to be carried away into the sea he, by fair means or foul,
succeeded in getting hold of her pouch and belt, on
which her power of swimming depended, and so retained
her on land ; and she became his bride. But we are not
surprised to hear that her tail was always in the way :
her silky hair grew tangled too, for her comb and glass
were in the pouch ; the dogs teased her, and rude people
mocked her. Thus her life was made wretched. But one
day m her husband's absence the labourers were pulling
down a stack of corn. As she watched them, weeping
for her lost freedom, she espied her precious pouch and
bjlt, which had been built in and buried among the
sheaves. She caught it and leaped into the sea.1

1 Keightley, p. 169, from Hibbert, "Description of the Shetland
Islands " ; Wratislaw, p. 290; " F. L. Journal," vol. vi. p. 165. As a
point of resemblance with the Lady of the Van Pool, quoted further

SWAN-MAIDENS. 267

In the last tale there is no change of form : the hero
simply possesses himself of something without which the
supernatural maiden has no power to leave him. Even
in the true Hasan of Bassorah type, the magical change
does not always occur. A variant translated by Jonathan
Scott from a Syrian manuscript merely enwraps the
descending damsels in robes of light green silk. When
her robe is taken the chosen beauty is kept from following
her companions in their return flight. Similar to this is
the Pomeranian saga already cited. In the New Hebrides
there is a legend of seven winged women whose home
was in heaven, and who came down to earth to bathe.
Before bathing, they put off their wings. According to
the version told in Aurora island, Qatu one day, seeing
them thus bathing, took the wings of one and buried
them at the foot of the main post of his house. In
this way he won their owner as his wife ; and she so
remained until she found her wings again. In modern
Greece it is believed that Nereids can be caught by seizing
their wings, their clothes, or even their handkerchiefs.
The Bulgarians, who have similar tales, call the super-
natural ladies Samodivas ; and they are captured by
means of their raiment. A number of parallels have
been cited from various sources by M. Cosquin, a few of
which may be mentioned. A Burmese drama, for instance,
sets before us nine princesses of the city of the Silver
Mountain, who wear enchanted girdles that enable them
to fly as swiftly as a bird. The youngest of these princesses
is caught while bathing, by means of a magical slip-knot.
A divine ancestress of the Bantiks, a tribe inhabiting the
Celebes Islands, came down from the sky with seven com-
panions to bathe. A man who saw them took them for

on, it may be noted that these seal-women (the legend of their capture
is a common one in the Shetland Islands) had the power to conjure up
from the deep a superior breed of horned cattle, many of whose off-
spring are still to be seen (Dr. Karl Blind in " Contemp. Rev." iSt'i,
quoted by Mac Ritchie, p. 4).

268 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

doves, but was surprised to find that they were women. He
possessed himself of the clothes of one of them, and thus
obliged her to marry him. In a story told by the Santals
of India, the daughters of the sun make use of a spider's
thread to reach the earth. A shepherd, whom they un-
blushingly invite to bathe with them, persuades them to
try which of them all can remain longest under water ;
and while they are in the river he scrambles out, and,
taking the upper garment of the one whom he loves,
flees with it to his home. In another Indian tale, five
apsaras, or celestial dancers, are conveyed in an enchanted
car to a pool in the forest. Seven supernatural maidens,
in a Samoyede marchen, are brought in their reindeer
chariot to a lake, where the hero possesses himself of the
best suit of garments he finds on the shore. The owner
prays him to give them up ; but he refuses, until he
obtains a definite pledge of marriage, saying : " If I give
thee the garments thou wilt fare up again to heaven." I

In none of these stories (and they are but samples of
many) does the feather dress occur ; yet it has left remi-
niscences Avhich are unmistakable. The variants hitherto
cited have all betrayed these reminiscences as articles of
clothing, or conveyance, or in the pardonable mistake of
the Bantik forefather at the time of capture. I shall refer
presently to cases whence the plumage has faded entirely
out of the story — and that in spite of its picturesqueness —
without leaving a trace. But let me first call attention to
the fact that, even where it is preserved, we often do not
find it exactly how and where we should have expected
it. Witness the curious Algonkin tale of " How one of

1 Kirby, p. 319; "Arch. Rev." vol. ii. p. 90; Schmidt, p. 133;
Bent, p. 13 ; Von Hahn, vol. i. p. 295 (cf. vol. ii. p. 82) ; Garnett, p.
352, translating Dozen's "Chansons Populaires Bulgares"; Cosquin,
vol. ii. p. 18. Cf. Ralston, "Tibetan Tales," p. 53; Landes, p. 123;
Comparetti, vol. i. p. 212, translated " F. L. Record," vol. ii. p. 12 ;
Grimm, " Tales," vol. ii. p. 331 ; Poestion, p. 55 ; Vernaleken, p. 274 ;
PUre, vol. iv. p. 140 ; Sastri, p. 80.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 269

the Partridge's wives became a Sheldrake Duck." A
hunter, we are told, returning home in his canoe, saw a
beautiful girl sitting on a rock by the river, making a
moccasin. He paddled up softly to capture her ; but she
jumped into the water and disappeared. Her mother,
however, who lived at the bottom, compelled her to
return to the hunter and be his wife. The legend then
takes a turn in the direction of the Bluebeard myth ; for
the woman yields to curiosity, and thus deprives her
husband of his luck. When he finds this out he seizes
his bow to beat her. " When she saw him seize his bow
to beat her she ran down to the river, and jumped in to
escape death at his hands, though it should be by
drowning. But as she fell into the water she became a
sheldrake duck." The Passamaquoddies, who relate this
story, have hardly yet passed out of the stage of thought
in which no steadfast boundary is set between men and
the lower animals. The amphibious maiden, who dwelt
in the bottom of the river, could not be drowned by
jumping into the stream ; and it is evident that she only
resumes her true aquatic :form in escaping from her
husband, who, it should be added, is himself called
Partridge and seems to be regarded as, in fact, a fowl of
that species. A still more remarkable instance is to be
found among the Welsh of Carnarvonshire, who, it need
hardly be said, are now on a very different level of civili-
zation from that of the Passamaquoddies. They tell us
that when the fairy bride of Corwrion quitted her un-
lucky husband, she at once flew through the air and
plunged into the lake ; and one account significantly
describes her as flying away like a wood-hen. Can it have
been many generations since she was spoken of as actually
changing into a bird ? r

1 Leland, p. 300. Cf. ibid. p. 140, where the maidens are called
weasels, and ultimately marry stars. " Y Cymmrodor," vol. iv. p. 201.
In a tale rendered from the modern Greek by Von Hahn the name
Swan-maiden is preserved in the title, though the plumage has disap-

2JO THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

We may i: v,v pass to wholly different types of the
tradition. In all the stories where the magical dress
appears, whether as a feather-skin, the hide of a
quadruped, or in the modified form of wings, a robe,
an apron, a veil or other symbol, the catastrophe is
brought about by the wife's recovery, usually more or less
accidental, of the article in question. But it is obvious
that where the incident of the dress is wanting, the loss
of the supernatural bride must be brought about by other
means. In some traditions, the woman's caprice, or the
fulfilment of her fate, is deemed enough for this purpose ;
but in the most developed stories it is caused by the
breach of a taboo. Taboo is a word adopted from the
Polynesian languages, signifying, first, something set
apart, thence holy and inviolable, and lastly something
simply forbidden. It is generally used in English as a
verb of which the nearest equivalent is another curious
verb — to boycott. A person or thing tabooed is one
avoided by express or tacit agreement on the part of any
class or number of persons ; and to taboo is to avoid in
pursuance of such an agreement. In Folklore, however,
the word is used in a different and wider sense. It
includes every sort of prohibition, from the social or
religious boycott (if I may use the word), to which it
would be more properly applied, down to any injunction
addressed by a supernatural being to the hero or heroine
of a tale. Folklore students of the anthropological school
are so apt to refer these last prohibitions for their origin
to the more general prohibitions of the former kind, that
perhaps this indiscriminate use of the word may be held
to beg some of the questions at issue. It is certain, how-
ever, that the scholars who originally applied it to what I
may call private prohibitions, had no such thought in
their minds. They found it a convenient term, applicable
by no great stretch of its ordinary meaning, and they

peared from the text. Stress can hardly be laid upon this, as the title
is no part of the tale. Von Ilahn, vol. i. p. 131.

S\VAN- MAIDENS. 2"J I

appropriated it to the purposes of science. I shall there-
fore use it without scruple as a well recognized word,
and without any question-begging intent.

Having premised so much, I will proceed to set forth
shortly the balder type of the story, where there is no
taboo, then the fuller type. Their relations to one
another will be dealt with in the next chapter.

An Algonkin legend relates that a hunter beheld a
basket descend from heaven, containing twelve young
maidens of ravishing beauty. He attempted to approach,
but on perceiving him they quickly re-entered the basket
and were drawn up again out of his sight. Another day,
however, he succeeded, by disguising himself as a mouse,
in capturing the youngest of the damsels, whom he
married and by whom he had a son. But nothing could
console his wife for the society of her sisters, which she
had lost. So one day she made a small basket ; and
having entered it with her child she sang the charm
she and her sisters had formerly used, and ascended once
more to the star from whence she had come. It is added
that when two years had elapsed the star said to his
daughter : " Thy son wants to see his father ; go down,
therefore, to the earth and fetch thy husband, and tell
him to bring us specimens of all the animals he kills."
This was done. The hunter ascended with his wife to
the sky ; and there a great 'feast was given, in which the
animals he brought were served up. Those of the guests
who took the paws or the tails were transformed into
animals. The hunter himself took a white feather, and
with his wife and child was metamorphosed into a
falcon.1 I will only now remark on the latter part of
the tale that it is told by the same race as the Sheldrake
Duck's adventures ; and if we deem it probable that the

1 " La Tradition," March 1889, p. 78, quoting the Abbe Domenech,
"Voyage pittoresque dans les deserts du Nouveau Monde," p. 214.
Mr. Farrer gives the same story from "Algic Researches" (Farrer,
*' Primitive Manners," p. 256).

2J2 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

heroine of that narrative simply resumed her pristine
form in becoming a duck, the same reasoning will hold
good as to the falcons here. This type of the myth we
may call the " Star's Daughter type."

The other type may be named after Melusina, the
famous Countess of Lusignan. The earliest writer to
mention the legend which afterwards became identified
with her name, was Gervase of Tilbury, who relates that
Raymond, the lord of a certain castle a few miles from
Aix in Provence, riding alone on the banks of the river,
unexpectedly met an unknown lady of rare beauty, also
alone, riding on a splendidly caparisoned palfrey. On
his saluting her she replied, addressing him by name.
Astonished at this, but encouraged, he made improper
overtures to her ; to which she declined to assent,
intimating, however, in the most unabashed way, that
she would marry him if he liked. He agreed to this ;
but the lady imposed a further condition, namely, that
he should never see her naked ; for if once he did so,
all the prosperity and all the happiness with which he
was about to be blessed would depart, and he would
be left to drag out the rest of his life in wretchedness.
On these terms they were married ; and every earthly
felicity followed, — wealth, renown, bodily strength, the
love of his fellow-men, and children — boys and girls — of
the greatest beauty. But one day his lady was bathing
in the bedroom, when he came in from hunting and
fowling, laden with partridges and other game. While
food was being prepared the thought struck him that
he would go and see her in her bath. So many years
had he enjoyed unalloyed prosperity that, if there ever
were any force in her threat, he deemed it had long
since passed away. Deaf to his wife's pleadings, he tore
away the curtain from the bath and beheld her naked ;
but only for an instant, for she was forthwith changed
into a serpent, and, putting her head under the water,
she disappeared. Nor ever was she seen again ; but

SWAN-MAIDENS, 273

sometimes in the darkness of night the nurses would
hear her busy with a mother's care for her little children.
Gervase adds. that one of her daughters was married to
a relative of his own belonging to a noble family of
Provence, and her descendants were living at the time
he wrote.1

The story, as told of Melusina, was amplified, but in its
substance differed little from the foregoing. Melusina
does not forbid her husband to see her naked, but bar-
gains for absolute privacy on Saturdays. When Ray-
mond violates this covenant he finds her in her bath
with her lower extremities changed into a serpent's tail.
The lady appears to be unconscious of her husband's dis-
covery ; and nothing happens until, in a paroxysm of anger
and grief, arising from the murder of one of his children
by another, he cries out upon her as an odious serpent,
the contaminator of his race. It will be remembered
that in the Esthonian tale cited in Chapter VIII the
youth is forbidden to call his mistress mermaid ; and all
goes well until he peeps into the locked chamber, where
she passes her Thursdays, and finds her in mermaid form.
Far away in Japan we learn that the hero Hohodemi
wedded Toyotamahime, a daughter of the Sea-god, and
built a house for her on the strand where she might give
birth to her child. She strictly forbade him to come
near until the happy event was over : he was to remain
in his own dwelling, and on no account to attempt to see
her until she sent for him. His curiosity, however, was
too much for his happiness. He peeped, and saw his wife
writhing to and fro on the floor in the shape of a dragon.
He started back, shocked ; and when, later on, Toyota-
mahime called him to her, she saw by his countenance
that he had discovered the secret she had thought to
hide from all mankind. In spite of his entreaties she
plunged into the sea, never more to see her lord. Her
boy, notwithstanding, was still the object of her care.
1 Gerv. Tilb. Dec. i. c. 15.
19

274 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

She sent her sister to watch over him, and he grew up to
become the father of the first Emperor of Japan. In a
Maori tale the hero loses his wife through prematurely
tearing down a screen he had erected for her convenience
on a similar occasion. A Moravian tale speaks of a bride
who shuts herself up every eighth day, and when her
husband looks through the keyhole, he beholds her,
thighs clad with hair and her feet those of goats. This
is a mdrchcn ; and in the end, having paid the penalty
of his rashness by undergoing adventures like those of
Hasan, the hero regains his love. A Tirolese marchcn
tells us of a witch who, in the shape of a beautiful girl,
took service with a rich man and made a conquest of his
son. She wedded him on condition that he would never
look upon her by candlelight. The youth, like a mascu-
line Psyche, breaks the taboo ; and a drop of the wax,
falling on her cheek, awakens her. It was in vain that he
blew out the taper and lay doAvn. When he awoke in
the morning she was gone ; but a pair of shoes with iron
soles stood by the bed, with a paper directing him to
seek her till the soles Avere Avorn out, and then he should
find her again. By the aid of a mantle of invisibility,
and a chair Avhich bore him Avhere he Avished, he arrived
in the nick of time to prevent her marriage Avith another
bridegroom. The proper reconciliation folloAVS, and her
true husband bears her home in triumph. Not so happy
was the hero of a Corsican saga, Avho insisted on seeing
his wife's naked shoulder and found it nothing but
bones — the skeleton of their love which he had thus
murdered.1

At the foot of the steep grassy cliffs of the Van Moun-
tains in Carmarthenshire lies a lonely pool, called Llyn y
Fan Fach, Avhich is the scene of a variant of Melusina,
less celebrated, indeed, but equally romantic and far more
beautiful. The legend may still be heard on the lips of

1 Brauns, p. 138; White, vol. ii. p. 141; Vernaleken, p. 294;
Schneller, p. 23 ; Ortoli, p. 284.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 275

the peasantry ; and more than one version has found its
way into print. The most complete was written down by
Mr. William Rees, of Tonn (a well-known Welsh anti-
quary and publisher), from the oral recitation of two old
men and a woman, natives of Myddfai, where the hero
of the story is said to have dwelt. Stated shortly, the
legend is to the following effect : The son of a widow
who lived at Blaensawdde, a little village about three-
quarters of a mile from the pool, was one day tending his
mother's cattle upon its shore when, to his astonishment,
he beheld the Lady of the Lake sitting upon its unruffled
surface, which she used as a mirror while she combed out
her graceful ringlets. She imperceptibly glided nearer to
him, but eluded his grasp and refused the bait of barley
bread and cheese that he held out to her, saying as she
dived and disappeared :

" Cras dy fara ;
Nid hawdd fy nala ! "
(" Hard-baked is thy bread ;
It is not easy to catch me ! ")

An offer of unbaked dough, or toes, the next day was
equally unsuccessful. She exclaimed :

" Llaith dy fara I
Ti ni fynna'."
(" Unbaked is thy bread 1
I will not have thee.")

But the slightly baked bread, which the youth subse-
quently took, by his mother's advice, was accepted : he
seized the lady's hand and persuaded her to become his
bride. Diving into the lake she then fetched her father
— " a hoary-headed man of noble mien and extraordinary
stature, but having otherwise all the force and strength
of youth " — who rose from the depths with two ladies and
was ready to consent to the match, provided the young
man could distinguish which of the two ladies before him

276 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

was the object of his affections. This was no small test
of love, inasmuch as the maidens were exactly alike in
form and features. One of them, however, thrust her
foot a little forward ; and the hero recognized a peculiarity
of her shoetie, which he had somehow had leisure to
notice at his previous interviews. The father admits the
correctness of his choice, and bestows a dowry of sheep,
cattle, goats, and horses, but stipulates in the most
business-like way that these animals shall return with
the bride, if at any time her husband prove unkind and
strike her thrice without a cause.

So far Mr. Rees' version. A version published in the
"Cambro-Briton" is somewhat different. Three beautiful
damsels appear from the pool, and are repeatedly pursued
by the young farmer, but in vain. They always reached
the water before him and taunted him with the couplet :

" Cras dy fara,

Anhawdd ein dala ! "

One day some moist bread from the lake came floating
ashore. The youth seized and devoured it ; and the
following day he was successful in catching the ladies.
The one to whom he offers marriage consents on the
understanding that he will recognize her the next day
from among the three sisters. He does so by the strap-
ping of her sandal ; and she is accompanied to her new
home by seven cows, two oxen, and a bull from the lake.
A third version presents the maiden as rowing on New
Year's Eve up and down the lake in a golden boat with
a golden oar. She disappears from the hero's gaze, with-
out replying to his adjurations. Counselled by a sooth-
sayer, who dwells on the mountain, he casts loaves and
cheese night after night from Midsummer Eve to New
Year's Eve into the water, until at length the magic skiff
again appears, and the fairy, stepping ashore, weds her
persistent wooer.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 277

In all three versions the bridegroom is forbidden to
strike " three causeless blows." Of course he disobeys.
According to the " Cambro-Briton " version it happened
that one day, preparing for a fair, he desired his wife to
go to the field for his horse. Finding her dilatory in
doing so, he tapped her arm thrice with his glove, saying,
half in jest : u Go, go, go ! " The blows were slight, but
they were blows ; and, the terms of the marriage contract
being broken, the dame departed — she and her cattle with
her — back into the lake. The other two accounts agree
in spreading the blows over a much greater length of
time. Mr. Rees' version relates that once the husband and
wife were invited to a christening in the neighbourhood.
The lady, however, seemed reluctant to go, making the
feminine excuse that the distance was too far to walk.
Her husband told her to fetch one of the horses from the
field. " I will," said she, " if you will bring me my
gloves, which I left in the house." He went, and,
returning with the gloves, found that she had not gone
for the horse, so he jocularly slapped her shoulder with
one of the gloves, saying : " Go, go ! " Whereupon she
reminded him of the condition that he was not to strike
her without a cause, and warned him to be more careful
in future. Another time, when they were together at a
wedding, she burst out sobbing amid the joy and mirth
of all around her. Her husband touched her on the
shoulder and inquired the cause of her weeping. She
replied : " Now people are entering into trouble ; and
your troubles are likely to commence, as you have the
second time stricken me without a cause." Finding how
very wide an interpretation she put upon the " causeless
blows," the unfortunate husband did his best to avoid
anything which could give occasion for the third and last
blow. But one day they were together at a funeral,
where, in the midst of the grief, she appeared in the
highest spirits and indulged in immoderate fits of
laughter. Her husband was so shocked that he touched

278 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

her, saying : " Hush, hush ! don't laugh ! " She retorted
that she laughed " because people, when they die, go out
of trouble " ; and, rising up, she left the house, exclaim-
ing : " The last blow has been struck ; our marriage
contract is broken, and at an end ! Farewell ! " Hurry-
ing home, she called together all her fairy cattle, walked
off with them to the lake, and vanished in its waters.
Even a little black calf, slaughtered and suspended on
the hook, descended alive and well again to obey his
mistress' summons ; and four grey oxen, which were
ploughing, dragged the plough behind them as they
went, leaving a well-marked furrow, that remains to this
day "to witness if I lie." The remaining version, with
some differences of detail, represents the same eccentric
pessimism on the lady's part (presumably attributable to
the greater spiritual insight of her supernatural character),
as the cause of the husband's not unwarranted annoyance
and of his breach of the agreement. She had borne him
three fair sons ; and although she had quitted her husband
for ever, she continued to manifest herself occasionally to
them, and gave them instruction in herbs and medicine,
predicting that they and their issue would become during
many generations the most renowned physicians in the
country.1

Such is the legend of the Van Pool. It has a number
of variants, both in Wales and elsewhere, the examination
of which I postpone for the present. Hitherto I have
been guided in the mention of variants of this myth
chiefly by the desire of showing how one type insensibly
merges into another. The only type I have now left for
examination may be called the "Nightmare type." It is

1 " The Physicians of Myddvai — Meddygon Myddfai," translated by-
John Pughe, Esq., F.R.C.S. , and edited by Rev. John Williams ab
Ithel, M.A. (1861), p. xxi. " Cambro-Briton," vol. ii. p. 315;
Sikes, p. 40. Mr. Sikes gives no authority for the third version. I
have assumed its genuineness, though I confess Mr. Sikes' methods are
not such as to inspire confidence.

SWAN- MAI DENS. 279

allied not so much to the stories of Melusina and the
Lady of the Van Pool as to stories like that of the
Croatian wolf-maiden. According to German and
Slavonic belief the nightmare is a human being — fre-
quently one whose love has been slighted, and who in
this shape is enabled to approach the beloved object. It
slips through the keyhole, or any other hole in a building,
and presses its victim sometimes to death. But it can be
caught by quickly stopping the hole through which it
has entered. A certain man did so one night ; and in the
morning he found a young and lovely maiden in the
room. On asking her whence she came, she told him
from Engelland (angel-land, England). He hid her
clothes, married her, and had by her three children.
The only thing peculiar about her was that she used con-
stantly to sing while spinning :

" Now calls my mother (or, blows my father) in

Engelland,
Mary Catharine,
Drive out thy swine."

One day her husband came home and found that his wife
had been telling the children that she had come as a night-
mare from Engelland. When he reproached her for it,
she went to the cupboard where her clothes were hidden,
threw them over herself, a'nd vanished. Yet she could
not quite forsake her husband and little ones. On Satur-
days she came unseen and laid out their clean clothes ;
and every night she appeared while others slept, and
taking the baby out of the cradle quieted it at her breast.
The allusion to the nightmare's clothes is uncommon ;
but it is an unmistakable link with the types we have
been considering. In other tales she is caught in the
shape of a straw ; and she is generally released by taking
the stopper out of the hole whereby she entered. The
account she gives of herself is that she has come out of
England, that the pastor had been guilty of some

280 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

omission in the service when she was baptized, and
hence she became a nightmare, but to be re-christened
would cure her. She often hears her mother call her.
In one story she vanished on being reproached with her
origin, and in another on being asked how she became a
nightmare.1

r An Esthonian tale speaks of a father who found his
little boy one night in an unquiet slumber. He noticed
over the bed a hole in the wall through which the wind
was Avhistling, and thought it was this which was dis-
turbing him. Wherefore he stopped it up ; and no
sooner had he done so than he saw on the bed by the
boy's side a pretty little girl, who teased and played with
him so that he could not sleep in peace. The child was
thus forced to stay in the house. She grew up with the
other children, and being quick and industrious was
beloved by all. Specially was she dear to the boy in
whose bed she was found ; and when he grew up he
married her. One Sunday in church she burst out
laughing during the sermon. After the service was
over the husband inquired what she was laughing at.
She refused to tell him, save on condition of his telling
her in return how she came into his father's house.
When she had extracted this promise from him, she told
him she saw stretched on the wall of the church a great
horse-skin, on which the Evil One was writing the
names of all those who slept or chattered in church, and
paid no heed to God's word. The skin was at last full

1 Jahn, p. 364, et seqq. ; Knoop, pp. 26, 83, 103 ; Kuhn, pp. 47, 197,
374 ; Kuhn und Schwartz, pp. 14, 91, 298 ; vSchleicher, p. 93 ; Thorpe,
vol. ii. p. 169, quoting Thiele. Note the suggestion of Pope Gregory's
pun in the name of the native land of the nightmare. Elsewhere a
child becomes a nightmare who is born on a Sunday and baptized on a
Sunday at the same hour, or one at whose baptism some wicked person
has secretly muttered in response to one of the priest's questions some
wrong words, or " It shall become a nightmare " (Lemke, p. 42).
Similar superstitions attached to somnabulism ; see Lecky, " History of
Rationalism," vol. i. p. 81, note 2.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 281

of names ; and in order to find room for more the Devil
had to pull it with his teeth, so as to stretch it further.
In so doing he bumped his head against the wall, and
made a wry face : Avhereat she, who saw it, laughed.
When they got home her husband pulled out the piece
of wood which his father had put into the hole ; and the
same instant his wife was gone. The husband was dis-
consolate, but he saw her no more. It Avas said, how-
ever, that she often appeared to his two children in
secret, and brought them precious gifts. In Smaland a
parallel legend is current, according to which the
ancestress of a certain family was an elf-maid who came
into the house with the sunbeams through a knot-hole in
the wall, and, after being married to the son and bearing
him four children, vanished the same way as she had
come. In North Germany it is believed that when
seven boys, or seven girls, are born in succession, one
among them is a nightmare. A man who had un-
knowingly wedded such a nightmare found that she
disappeared from his bed at nights ; and on watching
her he discovered that she slipped through the hole for
the strap by Avhich the latch Avas lifted, returning the
same Avay. So he stopped up the opening, and thus
always retained her. After a considerable time he
Avanted to use the latch, and thinking she had forgotten
her bad habit and he might safely take the peg out, he
did so ; but the next night she Avas missing, and never
came back, though every Sunday morning the man
found clean linen laid out for him as usual.1

A Pomeranian tradition relates the adventure of an
officer Avho was much troubled by the nightmare. He
caught her in the usual manner and Avedded her, although
he could not persuade her to say Avhence she came. After
some years she induced her husband to open the holes he

1 Jannsen, vol. i. p. 53 ; Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 70, quoting Afzelius,
vol. ii. p. 29, quoting Miillenhoff. It is a common Teutonic belief
that knot-holes are attributable to elves (Grimm, " Teut. Myth." p. 461),

282 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

had stopped up ; and the next morning she had dis-
appeared. But he found written in chalk on the table
the words : " If thou wilt seek me, the Commander of
London is my father." He sought her in London and
found her ; and having taken the precaution to rechristen
her he lived happily with her ever after.1 This is the
only instance I have met with where the nightmare-wife
is recovered. It would be interesting to know why
England is assigned as the home of these perturbed
spirits.

1 "Am Urds-Brunnen," vol. vi. p. 58.

CHAPTER XI.

SWAN-MAIDENS (continued}.

The incident of the recovery of the bride not found in all the stories —
New Zealand sagas — Andrianoro — Mother-right — The father repre-
sented under a forbidding aspect — Tasks imposed on the hero —
The Buddhist theory of the Grateful Animals — The feather-robe
a symbol of bride's superhuman character — Mode of capture — The
Taboo — Dislike of fairies for iron — Utterance of name forbidden —
Other prohibitions — Fulfilment of fate — The taboo a mark of
progress in civilization— The divine ancestress — Totems and
Banshees — Re-appearance of mother to her children —The lady
of the Van Pool an archaic deity.

I HOPE I have made clear in the last chapter the con-
nection between the various types of the Swan-maiden
group of folk-tales. The one idea running through them
all is that of a man wedding a supernatural maiden and
unable to retain her. She must return to her own
country and her own kin ; and if he desire to recover her
he must pursue her thither and conquer his right to
her by undergoing superhuman penance or performing
superhuman tasks, — neither of which it is given to
ordinary men to do. It follows that only when the story
is told of men who can be conceived as released from the
limitations we have been gradually learning during the
progress of civilization to regard as essential to humanity —
only when the reins are laid upon the neck of invention, —
is it possible to relate the narrative of the recovery of the
bride. These conditions are twice fulfilled in the history
of a folk-tale. They are fulfilled, first, when men are in
that early stage of thought in which the limitations of

284 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

man's nature are unknown, when speculations of the
kind touched upon in our second chapter, and illustrated
repeatedly in the course of this work, are received as
undisputed opinions. They are fulfilled -again when
the relics of these opinions, and the memories of the
mythical events believed in accordance with such
opinions, are still operative in the mind, though no
longer with the vividness of primitive times ; when some
of them still hold together, but for the most part they
are decaying and falling to pieces, and are only like the
faded rags of a once splendid robe which a child may
gather round its puny form and make believe for the
moment that it is a king. To the genuine credulity of
the South-Sea Islander, and to the conscious make-
believe of the Arab story-teller and the peasant who
repeats the modern tnarchcn, all things are possible.
But to the same peasant when relating the traditional
histories of his neighbours, and to the grave mediaeval
chronicler, only some things are possible, though many
more things than are possible to us. The slow and
partial advance of knowledge destroys some superstitions
sooner, others later. Some branches of the tree of
marvel flourish with apparently unimpaired life long
after others have withered, and others again have only
begun to fade. Hence, where the adventures of Tawhaki,
the mythical New Zealander, are incredible, the legend of
the origin of the Physicians of Myddfai from the Lady
of the Lake may still be gravely accepted. Gervase of
Tilbury would probably have treated the wild story of
Hasan's adventures in the islands of Wak as what it is ;
but he tells us he has seen and conversed with women
who had been captives to the Dracs beneath the waters of
the Rhone, while a relative of his own had married a
genuine descendant of the serpent-lady of that castle in
the valley of Trets.

Accordingly, the episode of the recovery of the bride is
scarcely ever found in the sagas of modern Europe, or

SWAN-MAIDENS. 285

indeed of any nation that has progressed beyond a certain
mark in civilization. But it is common in their tncirchen,
as well as in the sagas of more backward nations. In the
sagas of the advanced races, with rare exceptions, the most
we get is what looks like a reminiscence of the episode in
the occasional reappearance of the supernatural wife to
her children, or as a Banshee. Putting this reminiscence,
if it be one, aside for the present, we will first discuss
some aspects of the bride's recovery. In doing so,
though the natural order may seem to be inverted, we
shall in effect clear the ground for the proper under-
standing of the main features of the myth.

Many variants of the legend of Tawhaki are current
among the Maories. According to that adopted by Sir
George Grey, he was a hero renowned for his courage,
whose fame had reached to heaven. There Tango-tango,
a maiden of heavenly race, fell in love with him from
report ; and one night she descended to the earth and lay
down by his side. She continued to do this nightly,
stealing away again before dawn to her home. But
when she found herself likely to become a mother she
remained with him openly ; and when her daughter was
born she gave her to her husband to wash. Evidently
he did not like the work, for while carrying out his wife's
instructions, Tawhaki made a very rude remark about
the child. Hearing this, Tango-tango began to sob
bitterly, and at last rose up from her place with the
child and took flight to the sky. Her husband de-
termined to seek her. He found his way to the place
where a creeper hung down from heaven and struck its
roots into the earth. It was guarded there by a blind
old ancestress of his, \vhom he restored to sight, and
from whom he obtained directions how to climb the
plant. Arrived in heaven, he disguised himself and had
to undergo the indignity — he, a mighty chieftain — of
being enslaved by his wife's relatives, for whom he was
compelled to perform menial work. At length, however,

286 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

he manifested himself to his wife and was reconciled to
her. He is still in heaven, and is worshipped as a god.
Another version represents a cloud swooping upon the
wife and taking her away. Tawhaki endeavoured in
vain to follow her by mounting on a kite. A third
version simply relates that the lady returned to her
friends. Her husband, on arriving at the pa, or settle-
ment, where she dwelt, found among the children his
own son, by whom he sent his wife a love-token she had
formerly given him. This led to recognition, and she
eventually returned with him to his home. A more
interesting variant tells us that the fame of the nobleness
of Tini-rau was heard by Hine-te-iwaiwa, who determined
to set her cap (or whatever might be its equivalent in her
scanty costume) at him. She obtained an interview with
him, by a device recalling the conduct of the ladies in
The Land East of the Sun, for she broke and destroyed
some bathing-pools belonging to the hero. A quest of
the intruder naturally followed, with the result that
Tini-rau took her to live with him. She made short
work of her rivals, his elder wives ; and all went
smoothly until Hine, one unlucky day, asked her
husband to perform an operation upon her head as
necessary as familiar in some strata of civilization. In
doing this he made disrespectful observations about her,
when lo ! a mist settled down upon them, from the midst
of which her elder brother came and took his sister away.
Tini-rau, unable to endure her absence, determined to go
after his wife, accompanied by a flight of birds, by whose
cries he was informed, as he passed one settlement after
another, whether or not his wife was there. At length
he discovered her whereabouts, and made himself known
to her sister by a token which Hine understood. Then
he came to her, and she announced his arrival to all the
people, who assembled and welcomed him. He abode
there ; and when his wife's relatives complained that he
did not go and get food, he obtained it in abundance by

SWAN-MAIDENS. 287

the exercise of magical powers ; and so they lived happy
ever after.1

Now let us turn to the Malagasy tale of the way in
which Andrianoro obtained a wife from heaven. There
three sisters, whose dwelling-place is in heaven, frequent
a lake in the crystal waters whereof they swim, taking
flight at once on the approach of any human being. By
a diviner's advice the hero changes into three lemons,
which the youngest sister desires to take ; but the others,
fearing a snare, persuade her to fly away with them.
Foiled thus, the hero changes into bluish water in the
midst of the lake, then into the seed of a vegetable
growing by the waterside, and ultimately into an ant.
He is at length successful in seizing the youngest maiden,
who consents to be his wife in spite of the difference of
race ; for, while her captor is a man living on the earth,
her father dwells in heaven, whence the thunderbolt
darts forth if he speak, and she herself drinks no spirits,
" for if spirits even touch my mouth I die." After some
time, during his absence, his father and mother force
ibaka, or rum, into the lady's mouth, and she dies ; but
on his return he insists on opening her grave, and, to his
joy, finds her alive again. But she will not now stay on
earth : she must return to her father and mother in the
sky. They are grieving for her, and the thunder is a
sign of their grief. Finding himself unable to prevail
upon her to stay, he obtains permission to accompany
her. She warns him, however, of the dangers he will
have to encounter, — the thunderbolt when her father
speaks, and the tasks her father will lay upon him.
Before he goes he accordingly calls the beasts and the
birds together ; he slays oxen to feed them ; he tells them
the tests he is about to undergo, and takes promises
from them to accomplish the things that trouble him.
Obedient to his wife, he displays great humility to his

1 Grey, p. 66; Taylor, p. 138 ; White, vol. i. pp. 95, 115, et seqq.,
vol. ii. p. 127, et seqq.

288 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

father-in-law ; and by the aid of the lower animals he
comes triumphant out of every trial. The beasts with
their tusks plough up the spacious fields of heaven ; the
beasts and birds uproot the giant trees ; from the
Crocodile Lake the crocodiles themselves bring the
thousand spades ; between cattle which are exactly
alike the cattle-fly distinguishes the cows from the
calves ; and the little fly, settling on the nose of the
heroine's mother, enables the hero to point her out among
her daughters. The wife's father is astonished, and gives
his daughter anew to the hero to be his wife, dismissing
them with a dower of oxen, slaves and money.1

It will be observed that the adventures undergone by
Andrian6ro in heaven are very different from those of
the Maori heroes. Tawhaki and Tini-rau have certainly
to submit to hardships and indignities before they can be
reunited to their wives ; and they perform actions of
superhuman power. But these actions are not performed
as the condition of reunion ; nor are the tasks and the
indignities laid upon them by any parental ogre. In fact
the parental ogre is as conspicuous by his absence from
the New Zealand stories as he is by his presence in those
of Andrianoro and the Marquis of the Sun. How is
this to be explained ? The reason seems to lie in the
different organization of society under which the tale
attained its present form in either case. At an early
period of civilization, kinship is reckoned exclusively
through the mother : even the father is in no way
related to his children. This is a stage hardly ever
found complete in all its consequences, but of which the
traces remain in the customs and in the lore of many
nations who have long since passed from it, becoming, as
we might expect, fainter and fewer as it recedes into the
distance. Such traces are abundant in Maori tradition ;
and they point to a comparatively recent emergence from
1 " F. L. Journal," vol. i. p. 202 ; " Revue des Trad. Pop." vol. iv.
P- 305.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 289

female kinship. Among these traces is the omission of
the heavy father from the stories before us. Tango-
tango and Hine-te-iwaiwa were both maidens of more
than mortal race ; and presumably their parents would
be conceived of as still alive. But they are not so much
as alluded to — a sure sign that there was no paternal
authority to which these ladies would be accountable.
Indeed, if accountable at all, they are so to the whole
circle of their relatives, or to their tribe in general. It
is their brothers who assist them in time of need.
Tawhaki becomes the slave of his brothers-in-law. To
her " people " Hine announces her husband's arrival :
she simply announces it ; nor does it appear that any
consent on their part is required. Tini-rau takes his
place at once as a tribesman, and is expected to con-
tribute by his labour and skill to the sustenance of the
whole brotherhood.

One of the consequences of reckoning descent only
through females, which may be noticed here, is that the
children belong to the mother and the mother's family.
A trace of this lingers about the story of Tawhaki in the
affront to Tango-tango caused by her husband's offensive
remark upon their little one. In a society where the
offspring are the father's, or even where, as in modern
civilized life, they are treated as belonging to both
parents and partaking of the nature of both, no such
offence could be taken. Another consequence is that in
the organization of society the wife still continues after
marriage to reside with, and to be part of, the community
to which she belongs by birth. The man leaves his
father and his mother and cleaves to his wife. Hence it
would be natural for her to return home to her own
kindred, and for him to seek her and dwell with her
there. This is illustrated not only in the Maori legends
just cited, but also in the Arawak story given in the last
chapter, where the husband is received into the vulture
race until he desires to visit his mother. He is then

20

290 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

discarded as if he had committed some unpardonable
breach of custom ; and he cannot be restored to his
former privileges. Although the Greeks had before the
dawn of history ceased to practise mother-right, a trace
of it lingers in a modern folktale from Epirus. There a
man had by the ordinary device obtained an elf as a wife ;
and she bore him a child. After this her own kins-
men came and begged her to return to them ; but she
refused on the ground that she had a husband and child.
" Then bring them with you," they replied. Accordingly,
she took her husband and child, and went back with them
to dwell among the elves. It seems, however, to be felt
that this was an unusual proceeding ; otherwise it would
have been needless to plead with the lady to return, and
to extend a special invitation to those whom she would
not abandon : an indication, this, that the story has been
adapted to a higher plane of civilization, in which it was
no longer the custom for the husband to go and dwell
among his wife's people.1

On the other hand, Andrianoro's wife lives under
patriarchal government. The Malagasy have advanced
further on the path of civilization than the Maories ; and
at the stage of progress they have reached, the father is
much more like an absolute monarch. In the story

1 Von Hahn, vol. ii. p. 78- In illustration of these remarks on
marital relations in a society where female kinship only is recognized,
let me quote the following paragraph concerning Maori customs. The
Maories, it must be borne in mind, have only recently emerged from
this stage ; and many relics of it remain.

" Sometimes the father simply told his intended son-in-law he might
come and live with his daughter ; she was thenceforth considered his
wife, he lived with his father-in-law, and becam2 one of the tribe, or
hapu, to which his wife belonged, and in case of war, was often obliged
to fight against his own relatives. So common is the custom of the
bridegroom going to live with his wife's family, that it frequently
occurs, when he refuses to do so, she will leave him, and go back to
her relatives ; several instances came under my notice where young
men have tried to break through this custom, and hive so lost their
wives " (Taylor, p. 337).

SWAN-MAIDENS. 291

referred to, the lady had married without her father's
consent. Accordingly her marriage is ignored, and her
lover has to perform a number of services for his father-
in-law, and so purchase formal consent to their union.
Nor will it escape the reader that when the wielder of
the thunderbolt at last gives his daughter to her husband,
he dismisses them back to the home of the latter.
Hasan, too, it will bs remembered, returns to Bagdad
Avith his wife and children, though we probably have a
survival of an older form of the story in his relations
with her redoubtable sister. This lady holds a position
impossible in an Arab kingdom. Her father is a mere
shadow, hardly mentioned but to save appearances ;
so much more substantial is her power and her opposi-
tion to the match. The variants of the Marquis of the
Sun are found chiefly among European nations,1 whose
history, institutions, and habits of thought lead them to
attach great value to paternal authority. In the tasks
performed in mdrchen of this type, and the precipitate
flight which usually takes place on the wedding night
from the ogre's secret wrath, it would seem that we have
a reminiscence of the archaic institutions of marriage by
purchase and marriage by capture, — both alike incidents
of the period when mother-right (as the reckoning of
descent solely through females is called) has ceased to
exist in a pure form, and society has passed, or is passing,
into the patriarchal stage. The Marquis of the Sun
type is, therefore, more recent than the other types of
the Swan-maiden tradition, none of which so uniformly
in all their variants recognize the father's supreme
position.2

1 Not entirely : see Burton, " Suppl. Nights,'' vol. vi. p. 363 ; " F,
L. Journal," vol. i. p. 284; Sastri, p. 148.

2 In speaking of a type as more or less recent than another, it must
bs recollected that I am not speaking of chronological order, but of the
order of development. For aught we know, the story of the Marquis
of the Sun may as a matter of date be actually older, could we trace

292 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

If the tasks and the flight be a reminiscence of purchase
and capture, we may find in that reminiscence a reason
why nearly all the stories concur in representing the
father under a forbidding aspect. As his daughter's
vendor, — her unwilling vendor, — as her guardian from
capture, he would be the natural foe of her lover. He
is not always so ready as the Bird Simer to give up to
another his rights over her ; but perhaps the Bird Simer's
readiness may be partly explained by the husband's having
already performed the feat of rescuing the maiden from
a giant, beside slaying his own brother for her sake.
Usually the father is a frightful ogre or giant ; not in-
frequently he is no less a personage than the Devil him-
self. And the contrast between him and his lovely
daughter would be more and more strongly felt as
purchase and capture ceased to be serious methods of
bride-winning. Hence, probably, the thought of real
relationship would be abandoned, and the maiden would
often be conceived of as enchanted and captive in the
hands of a malevolent being.

We will not now stop to discuss the tasks in detail :
we can only afford time to glance at one of them, namely,
that of distinguishing the maid from her sisters. There
are three chief means by which the lover or husband is
enabled to identify the object of his devotion. Two of
these depend upon the lady herself : in the one she slily
helps her lover ; in the other he recognizes an insigni-
ficant peculiarity of her person or attire. The third
means is an indication given by one of the lower animals,
which has better means of knowledge than the suitor,
due probably to its greater cleverness — a quality, as I
have already pointed out in Chapter II., universally
credited in a certain stage of culture to these creatures.
We will deal first with the second means.

it, than the far more archaic story of Tawhaki. But the society in
which it took shape was more advanced than that disclosed in the
Maori legend.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 293

The most usual personal idiosyncrasy of the damsel is
the want of a finger, or some deformity in it, the result
of her previous efforts to aid the hero. Thus, in a Basque
tale the lad is set to find a ring lost by the ogre in a river.
This is accomplished by cutting up the maiden and
throwing the pieces into the stream ; but a part of the
little finger sticks in his shoe. When he afterwards has
to choose between the ogre's daughters .with his eyes shut,
he recognizes his love by the loss of her little finger.
The giant's daughter, in a West Highland tale, makes a
ladder with her fingers for her lover to climb a tree to
fetch a magpie's eggs ; and, in the hurry, she leaves her
little finger at the top. This accident arises sometimes,
as in the Marquis of the Sun, from the dropping of a
piece of flesh on the ground when the hero cuts up his
beloved ; or, according to a story of the Italian Tirol,
from spilling some of her blood. In the latter case, three
drops of blood fall into the lake, instead of the bucket
prepared to receive them, and thereby almost cause the
failure of his task. When the magician afterwards leads
the youth to his daughters and bids him choose, he takes
the youngest by the hand, and says : " I choose this one."
We are not told that there was any difference in the
maidens' hands, but this is surely to be inferred. In the
Milanese story of the King of the Sun the hero also
chooses his wife blindfold from the king's three daughters
by touching their hands ; and here, too, we must sup-
pose previous help or concert, though it has disappeared
from the text. In a story from Lorraine, John has to
take the devil's daughter, Greenfeather, to pieces to find
a spire for the top of a castle that he is compelled to
build ; and in putting her together again he sets one of
her little fingers clumsily. With bandaged eyes he has
to find the lady who has assisted him ; and he succeeds
by putting his hand on hers. The lad who falls into the
strange gentleman's hands in a Breton tale, forgets to
put the little toe of the girl's left foot into the caldron ;

294 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

and when she and her two sisters are led before him
veiled and clad in other than their ordinary garb, he
knows her at once by the loss of her toe. As it is told
in Denmark the enchanted princess agrees with the king's
son to wind a red silken thread around her little finger ;
and by this means he identifies her, though in the form
of a little grey-haired, long-eared she-ass, and again of a
wrinkled, toothless, palsied old woman, into which the
sorceress, whose captive she is, changes her. In a Swedish
story the damsel informs her lover that when the mer-
maid's daughters appear in various repulsive forms she
will be changed into a little cat with her side burnt and
one ear snipped. The Catalonian mdrchcn of Joanescas
represents the heroine as wanting a joint of her finger,
from her lover having torn off some of her feathers by
accident when he stole her robe. " Monk " Lewis in his
" Journal of a West India Proprietor " gives an Ananci tale
in which the heroine and her two sisters are changed
into black cats : the two latter bore scarlet threads round
their necks, the former a blue thread.1 According to
the Carmarthenshire saga, the lady is recognized by the
strapping of her sandal.

In several of the stories just cited, and many of their
congeners, the maiden forewarns her suitor how she will
be disguised, or by what marks she will be known.
Sometimes, however, she makes a sign to him on the
spot. The Lady of the Van Pool only thrusts her foot
forward that he may notice her shoe-tie ; but Cekanka
in a Bohemian tale is bold enough to wink at him. In
a Russian variant of the Marquis of the Sun, to which
I have already referred, the hero is in the power of the
Water King. On his way to that potentate's palace he

1 Webster, p. 120; Campbell, vol. i. p. 25; " Melusine," vol. i.
p. 446; " F. L. Espaii." vol. i. p. 187; Schneller, p. 71 ; Imbriani,
p. 411 ; Cosquin, vol. i. pp. 9, 25 ; Sebillot, " Contes," vol. i. p. 197 ;
Grundtvig, vol. i. p. 46 ; Cavallius, p. 255 ; Maspons y Labros, p. 102 ;
" F. L. Journal," vol. i. p. 284, quoting Lewis.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 2Q5

had, by the advice of the Baba Yaga, gone to the seashore
and watched until twelve spoonbills alighted, and, turn-
ing into maidens, had unrobed for the purpose of bathing.
Then he had stolen the eldest maiden's shift, to restore
it only on her promise to aid him against her father, the
Water King. She redeems the pledge by performing for
him the usual tasks, the last of which is to choose the
same bride thrice among the king's twelve daughters.
The first time she secretly agrees with him that she will
wave her handkerchief ; the second time she is to be
arranging her dress ; and the third time he will see a
fly above her head.1

Here we are led to the third means of recognition.
The incident of help rendered by one or more of the
lower animals to man is a favourite one in folk-tales ;
and it has furnished a large portion of the argumentative
stock-in-trade of those scholars who contend for their
Indian origin. We are assured that every tale which
contains this incident must be referred to a Buddhist
source, or at least has been subjected to Buddhist in-
fluence. This theory is supported by reference to the
doctrine of love for all living creatures which Buddha
is said to have promulgated. The command to over-
come hatred by love, the precepts of self-sacrifice and
devotion to others' good were not limited in the Buddha's
discourses, if those discourses be correctly reported, to
our conduct towards our fellow-men : they included all
creation. And they were enforced by parables which
represented good as done in turn to men by all sorts of
creatures, even the wildest and the most savage. Stories
of grateful beasts, of the type familiar to us in Androcles
and the Lion, became favourites among the disciples of
the Light of Asia. Scholars, therefore, have told us that
wherever a grateful beast thrusts his muzzle into the
story, that story must have come from India, and must
have come since the rise of Buddhism. Nay, they go
1 Waldau, p. 248; Ralston, " R. F. Talcs," p. 1 20, from Afanasief.

296 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

further. In every instance where a beast appears as
helping the hero, we are taught to presume that the
hero has first helped the beast, even though no trace of
such an incident be actually found. It must have been
so, otherwise the beast would have had no motive for
helping the hero, — and, it may be added, the theorist
would have had no ground for claiming the story as
proceeding from a Buddhist source.

Now all this would have been seen at once to be very
poor reasoning, but for one fact. A number, sufficient
to be called large, of parables, have actually made their
way from India to Europe in historic times, and since
the age of Gautama. The literary history of these
parables can be traced ; and it must be acknowledged
that, whatever their origin, they have been adopted
into Buddhist works and adapted to Buddhist doctrine.
Further, it seems demonstrated that some of them
have descended into the oral tradition of various
nations in Europe, Asia, and even Africa. But when so
much as this is conceded, it still fails to account for the
spread of the story of the Grateful Beasts and, even more
signally, for the incident of the Beast-helpers where there
is no gratitude in the case. A very slight examination
of the incident as it appears in the group of legends now
before us will convince us of this.

First of all, let it be admitted that in several of these
tales the service rendered by the brute is in requital for
a good turn on the part of the hero. Andrianoro, as we
have seen, begins by making friends with various animals
by means of the mammon of unrighteousness in the
shape of a feast. Jagatalapratapa, in the narrative already
cited from the Tamil book translated into English under
the title of " The Dravidian Nights Entertainments,"
pursuing one of Indra's four daughters, is compelled by
her father, after three other trials, to choose her out from
her sisters, who are all converted into one shape. He
prays assistance from a kind of grasshopper ; and the

SWAN- MAIDENS. 297

little creature, in return for a previous benefit, hops upon
her foot. But it is somewhat curious, if the theory be
true, that even in stories told among peoples distinctly
under Buddhist influence the gratitude is by no means
an invariable point. Thus the princess in the Burmese
drama is betrayed by "the king of flies " to her husband,
though the abstract we have of the play gives us no hint
ol any previous transaction between the puny monarch
and the hero ; and it is worthy of note that the Tibetan
version of the same plot given by Mr. Ralston from the
Kah-Gyur knows nothing of this entomological agency.
There the hero is a Bodisat, who, if he does not recognize
his beloved among the thousand companions who sur-
round her, at least has a spell the utterance of which
compels her to step out from among them. It does not
appear that Kasimbaha, the Bantik patriarch, is required
to undergo this particular test. But he is indebted to a
bird for indicating the lady's residence ; a glow-worm
places itself at her chamber door ; and a fly shows him
which of a number of dishes set before him he must not
uncover. M. Cosquin, who is an adherent of the Buddhist
hypothesis, in relating this instance, is compelled ex-
pressly to say that " one does not see why " these animals
should render such services. Neither, on M. Cosquin's
principle, can one see why, in the Arawak story, the
spiders should spin cords 'to help the outcast husband
down from heaven, or the birds take his part against the
vulture-folk to enable him to recover his wife.1 The proof
of Buddhist influence must rest heavily on its advocates
here, both on account of the absence of motive for grati-
tude, and of the distance of the Arawak people from
India and the utter disparity of civilizations.

The agency of recognition, when attributed to one of

1 Compare the assistance rendered by the birds to Tini-rau, SHprd,
p. 286. The Eskimo hero is conveyed to his wife on a salmon's tail
(Rink, p. 145). Where is the Buddhist pedigree of this incident, or the
evidence of Buddhist influence which produced it ?

298 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the lower animals, is ordinarily an insect ; but the reason
is, as often as not, a prior arrangement with the lady, as
in the Russian story of the Water King. The Polish
mdrchen of Prince Unexpected follows this line. In it,
the princess warns her lover that she will have a lady-
bird over her right eye. When a thousand maidens all
alike are produced to poor Hans in a Bohemian tale, he
has no difficulty in selecting the right one ; for a witch
has bidden him "choose her on whom, from the roof
of the chamber, a spider descends." *

These considerations are sufficient to prove that the
incident of the Helpful Beasts, as found in the Swan-
maiden group of stories, cannot be attributed to a
Buddhist origin.

We have now dealt with an episode of the mythical
narrative, necessary, indeed, to its completion, but found
only under certain conditions which I have pointed out.
We have seen this episode in two distinct forms whose
respective sources we have assigned to two distinct stages of
culture. The form characteristic of the European mdrchen
is apparently more barbarous in several respects than that
yielded by the islanders of the Southern Ocean ; but the
latter bears testimony to a state of society more archaic
than the other. Presumably, therefore, it represents
more nearly the primitive form of the story.

We turn next to the central incidents. In the previous
chapter I have taken pains to show the unmistakable
relation between the different types of the myth, in spite
of the omission of the feather-robe, or indeed of any
substitute for it. The truth is that the feather-robe is
no more than a symbol of the wife's superhuman nature.
From the more archaic variants it is absent ; but
frequently the true form of the lady is held to be
that of a member of what we contemptuously call
" the brute creation." Men in savagery, as we have

1 Sastri, p. ?o ; Cosquin, vol. ii. pp. 19, 18 ; Ralston, "Tibetan
Tales," p. 72 ; " F. L. Journal," vol. ii. p. 9; Vernaleken, p. 280.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 299

already seen, have quite different feelings from those
of contempt for brutes. On the contrary, they enter-
tain the highest respect and even awe for them.
They trace their descent from some of them ; and
a change of form from beast to man, or from man
to beast, while still preserving individual identity, would
not seem at all incredible, or even odd, to them. By
and by, however, the number of creatures having
these astonishing powers would decrease, as the circle
of experience widened. But there would linger a belief
in remarkable instances, as at Shan-si, in China, where
it is believed that there is still a bird which can divest
itself of its feathers and become a woman. Not every
swan would then be deemed capable of turning when it
pleased into a fair maiden ; and when this change hap-
pened, it would be attributed to enchantment, which had
caused the maiden merely to assume the appearance of a
swan for a time and for a special purpose. This often occurs,
as we have seen, in marc hen, Avhere the contrast between
the heroine and her father, or, as it is then often put, her
master, is very strong. It occurs, too, in tales belonging
to other types. A mdrchen told by Dr. Pitre relates that
a man had a pet magpie, which by enchantment had the
power of casting its wings and becoming a woman. She
always practised this power in his absence ; but he came
home one day and found her wings on the chair. He
burnt them, and she remained permanently a woman
and married him. In a saga from Guiana a warlock's
daughter persuades her father to transform her into a
dog that she may venture near a hunter whom she loves.
He accordingly gives her a skin, Avhich she draws over
her shoulders, and thus becomes a hound. When the
hunter finds her in his hut as a maiden, the charmed skin
hanging up and revealing her secret, he flings the skin
into the fire and weds her.1

1 " F. L. Journal," vol. vii. p. 318; Pitre, vol. iv. pp. 391, 410.
A variant given by Prof. De Gubernatis is nearly allied to the Cinderella
group (" Novelline," p. 29) ; Brett, p. 176.

300 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

But enchantment is not the only explanation. The
lady may, like Hasan's bride, be held to belong to a
superior race to men, though properly in human form.
In either case the peltry would be a mere veil hiding the
true individuality for a while. It would thus acquire a
distinct magical efficacy ; so that when deprived of it,
the maiden would be unable to effect the change. A
remarkable instance of this occurs in an Arab saga.
There a man, at Algiers, puts to death his three
daughters, who afterwards appear to a guitar-player and
dance to his playing. As they dance they throw him the
rind of the oranges they hold in their hands ; and this
rind is found the next day changed into gold pieces and
into jewels. The following year the maidens appear
again to the guitar-player. He manages to get hold of
their shrouds, which he burns. They thereupon come
back to life, and he weds the youngest of them. This is
said to have happened no longer ago than sixty years
before the French conquest of Algiers.1

Nothing of the sort is found in the Maori tales. To
the natives of New Zealand no change seemed needful :
the lady was of supernatural birth and could fly as she
pleased. The same may be said of Andrianoro's wife,
notwithstanding that the Malagasy variant, as a whole,
bespeaks a higher level of culture than the adventures of
Tawhaki and Tini-rau. As little do we find the magical
robe in the Passamaquoddy story of the Partridge and the
Sheldrake Duck. The Dyaks of Borneo are unconscious
of the need of it in the saga of their ancestral fish, the
puttin, which was caught by a man, and when laid in his
boat turned into a girl, whom he gave to his son for a
bride. The Chinese have endless tales about foxes which
assume human form ; but the fox's skin plays no part in

1 Basset, p. 161, quoting Bresnier, " Cours cle langue Arabe." In a
Maya story given by Dr. Brinton, the husband prevents his wife's trans-
formation in a different way — namely, by throwing salt (" F. L. Journal,"
vol. i. p. 251).

SWAN -MAIDENS. 301

them. And in a Japanese tale belonging to the group
under consideration, the lady changes into a fox and
back again into a lady without any apparatus of peltry.1

Again, in the nursery tales of the higher races, the
dress when cast seems simply an article of human cloth-
ing, often nothing but a girdle, veil, or apron ; and it is
only when donned by the enchanted lady, or elf, that it
is found to be neither more nor less than a complete
plumage. Thence it easily passes into a mere instrument
of power, like the mermaid's belt and pouch in the
Scottish story, or the book of command in the mdrchen
of the Island of Happiness, and is on its way to final
disappearance.

The maiden's capture is effected in those types of the
tale where the enchanted garment is worn, by the theft
of the garment. These cases will not detain our atten-
tion : we will pass at once to the discussion of those
where there is no transformation to be effected or
dreaded. Perhaps the most interesting of all are the
Welsh sagas ; and of these not the least remarkable is
the suit by offerings of food. Andrianoro tried this
device in the Malagasy story ; but it was unsuccessful.
In a Carnarvonshire analogue from Llanberis, the youth
entices his beloved into his grasp by means of an apple : 2
in the Van Pool variants th.e offering assumes almost a
sacramental character. Until the fairy maiden has tasted
earthly bread, or until her suitor has eaten of the food
which sustains her, he cannot be united to her. Here we
are reminded on the one hand of the elfin food con-
sidered in a former chapter, to partake of which sealed
the adventurer's fate and prevented him for ever from
returning to his human home ; and on the other hand of
the ceremony of eating together which among so many
nations has been part of the marriage rites.

1 "Journ. Ethnol. Soc." N. S., vol. ii. p. 26 ; Giles, passim; Brauns,
p. 388.

2 " Y Cymmrodor," vol. v. p. 94.

302 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Walter Map relates a curious story of Llangorse Lake
having affinities for the Land East of the Sun, and still
more with one of the Maori sagas. Wastin of Wastiniog
watched, the writer tells us, three clear moonlit nights
and saw bands of women in his oat-fields, and followed
them until they plunged into the pool, where he over-
heard them conversing, and saying to one another : " If
he did so and so, he would catch one of us." Thus
instructed, he of course succeeded in capturing one.
Here, as in many of the stories, the lady has obviously
designs upon the mortal of opposite sex, and deliberately
throws herself in his way. But she lays a taboo upon
him, promising to serve him willingly and with all
obedient devotion, until that day he should strike her in
anger with his bridle. After the birth of several children
he was unfortunate enough on some occasion, the details
of which Walter Map has forgotten, to break the condi-
tion ; whereupon she fled with all her offspring, of whom
her husband was barely able to save one before she
plunged with the rest into the lake. This one, whom
he called Triunnis Nagelwch, grew up, and entered the
ssrvice of the King of North Wales. At his royal
master's command, Triunnis once led a marauding ex-
pedition into the territory of the King of Brecknock.
A battle ensued, when he was defeated and his band cut
to pieces. It is said that Triunnis himself was saved by
his mother, and thenceforth dwelt with her in the lake.
" But, indeed," adds the truth-loving Walter, " I think
it is a lie, because a delusion of this kind is so likely to
account for his body not having been found." x

In spite, however, of such unwonted incredulity, Map,
having once begun by telling this story, proceeds to tell
another like it, which he seems to have no difficulty in
believing. The second tale concerns a hero of the Welsh
border, Wild Edric, of whose historic reality as one of
the English rebels against William the Conqueror there
1 Map, Dist. ii. c. n.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 303

is ample proof. It appears that Edric, returning from
hunting, lost his way in the Forest of Dean, and accom-
panied only by one boy, reached about midnight a large
house which turned out to be a drinking-shop, such as
the English, Map says, call a guildhouse. On approach-
ing it he saw a light, and looking in, he beheld a number
of women dancing. They were beautiful in countenance,
bigger and taller than ordinary women. He noticed one
among them fairer than the rest, and (Walter, perhaps,
had Fair Rosamund in his mind when he says) more to
be desired than all the darlings of kings. Edric rushed
round the house and, finding an entrance, dashed in and
with the help of his boy dragged her out, despite a furious
resistance in which the nails and teeth of her companions
made themselves felt. She brooded in sullen silence for
three whole days ; but on the fourth day she exclaimed
to her new master : " Bless you, my dearest, and you will
be blessed too, and enjoy health and prosperity until you
reproach me on account of my sisters, or the place, or the
grove whence you have snatched me away, or anything
connected with it. For the very day you do so your
happiness will forsake you. I shall be taken away ; and
you will suffer repeated misfortune, and long for your
own death." He pledged himself to fidelity ; and to
their splendid nuptials nobles came from far and near.
King William heard of the wonder, and bade the newly
wedded pair to London, where he was then holding his
court, that he might test the truth of the tale. They
proved it to him by many witnesses from their own
country ; but the chief testimony was that of the lady's
superhuman beauty ; and he dismissed them in admira-
tion to their home. After many years of happiness
Edric returned one evening late from hunting, and
could not find his wife. He spent some time in vainly
calling for her before she came. " Of course," he began,
angrily, " you have not been detained so long by your
sisters, have you ? " The rest of his wrath fell upon the

304 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

empty air ; for at the mention of her sisters she vanished.
And neither her husband's self-reproaches, nor his tears,
nor any search could ever find her again.1

A point far more interesting than the actual mode of
capture is the taboo. The condition on which the heroine
remains with her captor-spouse is, in stories of the Hasan
of Bassorah type, his preservation of the feather-garb ;
in those of the Melusina type (with which we are now
dealing), his observance of the taboo. In the tales just
cited from Walter Map we have two important forms of
the taboo, and in the legend of Melusina herself we have
a third. The latter is an example of the ordinary
objection on the part of supernatural beings to be seen
otherwise than just how and when they please, which
we have dealt with in a previous chapter ; and little
need be added to what I have already said on the
subject. The other two are, however, worth some
consideration.

In the account of Wastin of Wastiniog we are told
that he was forbidden to strike his wife with the bridle.
Let us compare this prohibition with that of the fairy of
" the bottomless pool of Corwrion," in Upper Arllechwedd,
Carnarvonshire, who wedded the heir of the owner of
Corwrion. The marriage took place on two conditions —
first, that the husband was not to know his wife's name,
though he might give her any name he chose ; and,
second, that if she misbehaved towards him, he might
now and then beat her with a rod, but that he should not
strike her with iron, on pain of her leaving him at once.
" This covenant," says Professor Rhys in repeating the
tale, " was kept for some years, so that they lived happily
together, and had four children, of whom the two
youngest were a boy and a girl. But one day, as they
went to one of the fields of Bryn Twrw, in the direction
of Penardd Gron, to catch a pony, the fairy wife, being
so much nimbler than her husband, ran before him and
1 Map, Dist. ii. r. 12.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 305

had her hand in the pony's mane in no time. She called
out to her husband to throw her a halter ; but instead of
that he threw towards her a bridle with an iron bit,
which, as bad luck would have it, struck her. The wife
at once flew through the air, and plunged headlong into
Corwrion Lake. The husband returned sighing and
weeping towards Bryn Twrw (Noise Hill), and when he
reached it, the twrw (noise) there was greater than had
ever been heard before, namely, that of weeping after
' Belene ' ; and it was then, after he had struck her with
iron, that he first learnt what his wife's name was." x

The perusal of this saga will raise a suspicion that the
original form of the taboo in Wastin's case was a prohibi-
tion against striking with iron, and that the prohibition
was eventually infringed by means of a bridle. Whether
the alteration was due to a blunder on Map's part in rela-
ting the story is of no importance ; but the suspicion will
be raised to a certainty by turning to some other sagas in
Professor Rhys' admirable collection. It is related at
Waenfawr, near Carnarvon, that a youth broke, like
Wild Edric, into a dance of the fairies on the banks of
the Gwyrfai, near Cwellyn Lake, one moonlit night,
and carried off a maiden. She at first refused to wed
him, but consented to remain his servant. One evening,
however, he overheard two of her kindred speaking of
her, and caught her name — Penelope. When she found
that he had learnt her name she gave way to grief :
evidently she now knew that her fate was sealed. On his
importunity being renewed, she at length consented to
marry him, but on the condition that he should not strike
her with iron. Here again the taboo was broken by the
flinging of a bridle while chasing a horse. A similar tale
was related in the vale of Beddgelert, wherein the stolen
lady would only consent to be the servant of her ravisher

1 " Y Cymmrodor," vol. iv. p. 201. Nothing turns on the actual names
in these stories ; they have been evidently much corrupted, — probably
past all recognition.

21

306 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

if he could find out her name. When he had discovered
it, she asked in astonishment ; " O mortal, who has be-
trayed my name to thee ? " Then, lifting up her tiny
folded hands, she exclaimed : " Alas ! my fate, my fate ! "
Even then she would only marry him on condition that
if ever he should touch her with iron she would be free
to leave him and return to her family. Catastrophe, as
before. In a variant the maiden, pressed by her human
lover, promises to marry, provided he can find out her
name. When he succeeds in doing this she faints away,
but has to submit to her doom. In doing so, she imposes
one more proviso : he is not to touch her with iron, nor
is there to be a bolt of iron, or a lock, on their door. The
servant-girl, in another story cited in Chapter VII., who
was rescued from Fairyland, could only stay, it will be
remembered, in her master's service so long afterward, as
he forebore to strike her with iron ; and the fatal blow
was struck accidentally with a bit.1

Mr. Andrew Lang has remarked, following Dr. Tylor,
that in this taboo the fairy mistress is " the representative
of the stone age." This is so ; and the reason is, because
she belongs to the realm of the supernatural. When the
use of metals was discovered, stone implements were dis-
carded in ordinary life ; but for ages afterwards knives of
stone were used for religious purposes. There is evidence,
for instance, that the Hebrews, to seek no further, em-
ployed them in some of their sacred rites ; an altar of
stone was forbidden to be hewn ; and when King
Solomon built the temple, " there was neither hammer,
nor axe, nor any tool of iron heard in the house while it
was in building." Although there may be no direct
evidence of such a practice among the Cymric Britons,
they were probably no exception to the rule, which seems
to have been general throughout the world ; and the
Druids' custom of cutting the mistletoe with a golden, not
with an iron, sickle, points in this direction. The reten--
1 Ibid. p. 189 ; vol. v. pp. 59, 66 ; vol. vi. p. 196.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 307

tion of stone instruments in religious worship was doubt-
less due to the intense conservatism of religious feeling.
The gods, having been served with stone for so long,
would be conceived of as naturally objecting to change ;
and the implements whose use had continued through so
many revolutions in ordinary human utensils, would
thereby have acquired a divine character. Changes of
religion, however, brought in time changes even in these
usages. Christianity was bound to no special reverence
for knives and arrowheads of flint ; but they seem to
have been still vaguely associated with the discarded
deities, or their allies, the Nymphs and Oreads and Fairies
of stream or wood or dell, and with the supernatural
generally. A familiar example of this is the name of
Elfbolts given by the country people in this and other
lands to these old-world objects, whenever turned up by
the harrow or the spade. Now the traditional preference
on the part of supernatural beings for stone instruments
is only one side of the thought which would, as its reverse
side, show a distinct abhorrence by the same mythical
personages for metals, and chiefly (since we have long
passed out of the bronze age) for iron. Not only do
witches and spirits object to the horseshoe ; axes and
iron wedges are equally distasteful to them — at all events
in Denmark. So in Brittany, when men go to gather
the herbe d^or, a medicinal' plant of extraordinary virtue,
they go barefooted, in a white robe and fasting, and no
iron may be employed ; and though all the necessary
ceremonies be performed, only holy men will be able to
find it. The magical properties of this plant, as well as
the rites requisite to obtain it, disclose its sacredness to
the old divinities. It shines at a distance like gold, and
if one tread on it he will fall asleep, and will come to
understand the languages of birds, dogs, and wolves.1
In previous chapters we have already had occasion to note

1 Pliny 1. xvi. c. 95 ; Thorpe, vol. ii. pp. 275, 277 ; Stephens,
p. 248, citing the " Barzas Breiz."

308 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

this dislike for iron and steel. Hence the placing of scissors
and fire-steel in an unchristened babe's cradle. Hence the
reason for the midwife's casting a knife behind her when
she left the troll's dwelling laden with his gifts ; and for
the Islay father's taking the precaution of striking his
dirk into the threshold when he sought his son in the
fairy hill. So, too, in Sweden people who bathed in the
sea were gravely advised to cast into it close to them a
fire-steel, a knife, or the like, to prevent any monster from
hurting them. The bolts and locks to Avhich the fairy
of Beddgelert objected would have prevented her free
passage into and out of the house.

In the Pomeranian saga quoted in the last chapter, the
enchanted princess is unable to open the trunk which
contains her magical shift : she must wait for another to
open it and give her the garment. In the same way
Hasan's bride could not herself go to the chest and get her
feather-dress. The key was committed to her mother-
in-law's care, and was forced from the old woman by
Zubaydah, the Caliph's wife ; nor did it ever come into
the fairy's hands, for her dress was fetched for her by
Masrur at Zubaydah's bidding. It is not unlikely that
the reason for the supernatural wife's difficulty in these
and analogous cases is the metal lock and key. But we
must not forget that the robe is not always locked up in a
chest. Sometimes it is hidden in a hole in the wall, some-
times in a stack of corn, sometimes beneath the main-post
of the wooden hut in which the wedded pair are dwelling.
Moreover, we must not leave out of account that in the
Nightmare type the wife cannot herself take the wooden
stopper out of the hole through which she entered ; but
directly it is removed by another she vanishes. These
things go to show that such supernatural beings cannot
themselves undo charms expressly performed against
them. So evil spirits cannot penetrate a circle drawn
around him by one who invokes them. So, too, the sign
of the cross is an efficient protection against them ; and

SWAN-MAIDENS. 309

it is therefore made upon churches and altars at the time
of consecration.

But the stipulation made by the lady of Corwrion was
twofold. Not only was her bridegroom to forbear striking
her with iron, but he was not even to know her name.
It is so difficult for us to put ourselves into the mental
attitude of savages, that we do not understand the objec-
tion they almost all entertain to the mention of their
names. The objection itself is, however, well known
and widely spread ; but it is not always manifested in
exactly the same form. In some cases a man only refuses
to utter his own name, Avhile he will utter another's
name readily enough. Sometimes it is deemed an un-
pardonable thing to call another by name ; he must be
addressed, or spoken of by an epithet. And frequently
a man's real name is a profound secret, known only to
himself, all others knowing him only by some epithet or
title. Sometimes it is only forbidden to relatives by
marriage to speak, one another's names. Thus in various
ways etiquette has prescribed a number of customs
limiting the utterance of names among savage and
barbarous peoples all the world over. The otigin of
these rules and customs seems to have been the dread of
sorcery. A personal name was held to be a part of its
owner ; and, just as the possession of a lock of another's
hair, or even a paring of his nail, was believed to confer
power over him, so was the knowledge of his name.
Similarly men in the lower culture have a great fear of
having their likenesses taken ; and everybody is familiar
with the belief that a witch, who has made a waxen
image and given it the name of any one whom she wants
to injure, can, by sticking pins in it, or melting it in a
flame, inflict pain, and even death, upon the person whom
the doll represents.1

1 The above paragraphs had scarcely been written when the London
papers (June 1890) reprinted extracts from a letter in the Vossische
Zeitung relating the adventures of Dr. Bayol, the Governorof Kotenon,

310 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Illustrations of this superstition might easily be multi-
plied from every nation under heaven. But we need not
go so far afield ; for if we compare the taboo in the story
of Corwrion with the other stories I have cited from
the same county, we shall have no difficulty in satisfying
ourselves as to its meaning. It can only belong to the
stage of thought which looks with dread on the use that
may be made of one's name by an enemy, — a stage of
thought in which the fairy might naturally fear for a
man of another race, albeit her husband, to become
possessed of her real name. What else can we infer from
the evident terror and grief with which the captive ladies
hear their names from their suitors' lips ? It is clear
that the knowledge of the fairy's name conferred power
over her which she was unable to resist. This is surely
the interpretation also of the Danish tale of a man from
whom a Hill-troll had stolen no fewer than three wives.
Riding home late one night afterwards, he saw a great
crowd of Hill-folk dancing and making merry ; and
among them he recognized his three wives. One of these
was Kirsten, his best beloved, and he called out to her
and named her name. The troll, whose name was
Skynd, or Hurry, came up to him and asked him why
he presumed to call Kirsten. The man explained that
she had been his favourite wife, and begged him with
tears to give her back to him. The troll at last con-
sented, but with the proviso that he should never hurry
(skynde) her. For a long time the condition was
observed ; but one day, as she was delayed in fetching
something for her husband from the loft, he cried out to
her : " Make haste (skynde dig\ Kirsten ! " And he had
hardly spoken the words when the woman was gone,

who was recently imprisoned by the bloodthirsty King of Dahomey.
The king was too suspicious to sign the letter written in his name to the
President of the French Republic. In all probability he was unwilling
to let the President have his sign manual, for of course M. Carnot would
have no hesitation in bewitching him by its mean?.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 31!

compelled to return to the troll's abode. Here we have
the phenomenon in a double form ; for not only does the
husband regain his wife from the troll by pronouncing
her name, but he loses her once more by inadvertently
summoning her captor. It is a German superstition that
a mara, or nightmare, can be effectually exorcised if the
sufferer surmises who it is, and instantly addresses it by
name.1 We can now understand how, in the Carmarthen-
shire story mentioned in Chapter VII., the farmer was
rescued from the fairies under whose spell he had been
for twelve months. A man caught sight of him dancing
on the mountain and broke the spell by speaking to him.
It must have been the utterance of his name that drew
him out of the enchanted circle.

Returning, however, to the legend of Wastin, we may
observe how nuich narrower and less likely to be infringed
is the taboo imposed on him than that imposed on the
youth of Blaensawdde. Yet the lady of the Van Pool,
whatever her practice, had in theory some relics of old-
fashioned wifely duty. She did not object to the
chastisement which the laws of Wales allowed a husband
to bestow. A husband was permitted to beat his wife
for three causes ; and if on any other occasion he raised
his hand against her, she had her remedy in the shape
of a sarad, or fine, to be paid to her for the disgrace.
But a sarad would not satisfy this proud lady ; nothing
less than a divorce would meet the case. The Partridge's
wife, as we have seen, was still more exacting : she declined
to be struck at all. In the same way the fish who had
become a girl, in the Dyak story, cautioned her husband
to use her well ; and when he struck her she rushed
back screaming into the water. In another Bornoese
tradition, which is quoted by Mr. Farrer, the heroine
is taken up to the sky because her husband had struck
her, there having been no previous prohibition.2 A

1 Keightley, p. 121, quoting from Thiele ; Thorpe, vol. iii. p. 155.

2 Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales (Public Record Comm.

312 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

different sort of personal violence is resented in the
Bantik legend cited above. There the husband is
forbidden to tear out one white hair which adorns
Outahagi, his wife's head. He disobeys after she has
given birth to a son ; and she vanishes in a tempest and
returns to the sky, where her husband is forced to seek
her again.

The stipulation made by Wild Edric's bride is still
more arbitrary, according to our notions, than these.
Her husband was forbidden to reproach her on account
of her sisters, or the place from which he snatched her
away. In other words, he was forbidden to charge her
with her supernatural character. When Diarmaid, the
daughter of King Underwaves, comes in the form of a
beggar to Fionn and insists on sharing his couch, she
becomes a beautiful girl, and consents to marry him on
condition that he does not say to her thrice how he found
her. In a variant, the hero, going out shooting, meets
with a hare, which, when hard pressed by the dogs, turns
into a woman. She promises to wed him on his entering
into three vows, namely, not to ask his king to a feast
without first letting her know (a most housewifely
proviso), not to cast up to her in any company that he
found her in the form of a hare, and not to leave her in
the company of only one man. Both these are West
Highland tales ; and in the manner of the taboo they
closely resemble that given by Map. In an Illyrian
story, a Vila is by a youth found one morning sleeping
in the grass. He is astonished at her beauty, and plants
a shade for her. When she wakes she is pleased, and
asks what he wants for such kindness. He asks nothing
less than to take her to wife ; and she is content, but,
avowing herself a Vila, forbids him to utter that name,
for if he should do so she must quit him at once.

1841) pp. 44, 252. (The Dimetian code was the one in force at
Myddfai ; but that of Gwynedd was similar in this respect.) Farrer,
p. 256.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 313

Keats has glorified one of these stories by his touch ;
and it was a true instinct that guided him to make
Lamia's disappearance follow, not on Apollonius' denun-
ciation of her real character, but on the echo of the
words " A serpent ! " by her astounded husband,
Lycius. What matter that the philosopher should make
a charge against her ? It was only when her lover
repeated the foul word that she forsook him. The
nightmare-wife in one of the stories mentioned in the
last chapter vanishes, it will be remembered, on being
reproached with her origin, and in another on being
asked how she became a nightmare ; and the lady in
the Esthonian tale warns her husband against calling her
Mermaid. In this connection it is obvious to refer to
the euphemistic title Eumenides, bestowed by the Greeks
on the Furies, and to the parallel names, Good People and
Fair Family, for fays in this country. In all these cases
the thought is distinguishable from that of the Car-
narvonshire sagas ; for the offence is not given by the
utterance of a personal name, but by incautious use of
a generic appellation which conveys reproach, if not
scorn.1

The heroine of a saga of the Gold Coast was really a
fish, but was in the form of a woman. Her husband had
sworn to her that he would not allude in any way to her
home or her relatives ; and, relying on this promise, his
wife had disclosed her true nature to him and taken him
down to her home. He was kindly received there, but
was speared by some fishermen, and only with difficulty
rescued by his new relatives, who enjoined him when he
returned to earth with his wife to keep the spearhead
carefully concealed. It was, however, found and claimed
by its owner ; and to escape the charge of theft the hus-

1 Campbell, vol. iii. p. 403; Mac Innes, p. 21 1 ; Wratislaw, p. 314.
Cf. a similar story told by a peasant to Dr. Krauss' mother no longer ago
than 1888, as having recently happened at Mrkopolje : he "knew the
parties!" (Krauss, " Volksgl." p. 107).

314 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

band reluctantly narrated the whole adventure. No evil
consequences immediately ensued from this breach of his
vow. But he had lately taken a second wife ; and she
one day quarrelled with the first wife and taunted her
with being a fish. Upbraiding her husband for having
revealed the secret, the latter plunged into the sea and
resumed her former shape. So in the Pawnee story of
The Ghost Wife, a wife who had died is persuaded by her
husband to come back from the Spirit Land to dwell again
with himself and her child. All goes well until he takes
a second wife, who turns out ill-tempered and jealous
of the first wife. Quarrelling with her one day, she
reproaches the latter with being nothing but a ghost.
The next morning when the husband awoke, his first
wife was no longer by his side. She had returned to
the Spirit Land ; and the following night both he and the
child died in their sleep — called by the first wife to
herself.1 These sagas bring us back to that of Melusina,
who disappears, it will be recollected, not when the
count, her husband, breaks the taboo, but when, by
calling her a serpent, he betrays his guilty knowledge.
A name, indeed, is the cause of offence and disappear-
ance in many other of these stories. The chieftain of the
Quins, who owned the Castle of Inchiquin on the lake of
that name, near the town of Ennis in Ireland, found in
one of the many caves of the neighbourhood a lady who
consented to become his bride, only stipulating that no
one bearing the name of O'Brien should be allowed to
enter the castle gate. When this prohibition was in-
fringed she sprang through a window with her child
into the lake. The property has long since passed into
the hands of the O'Briens ; and amid the ruins of the
castle the fatal window is still shown nearly as perfect as
when the supernatural lady leaped through it into the
waters. It may be safely said that the primitive form of
the taboo has not come down to us in this tale, and that
1 Ellis, p. 208 ; Grinnell, p. 129.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 315

it owes its present form to the fact that the O'Briens
have acquired the estates once owned by the Quins.
Probably the utterance of some hateful name was
forbidden. But whatever name may have been able
to disturb the equanimity of the Lady of Inchiquin,
we are now familiar enough with these superstitions to
understand why a holy name should be tabooed by the
goat-footed fairy wife of Don Diego Lopez in the Spanish
tale narrated by Sir Francis Palgrave. " Holy Mary ! "
exclaimed the Don, as he witnessed an unexpected
quarrel among his dogs, " who ever saw the like ? "
His wife, without more ado, seized her daughter and
glided through the air to her native mountains. Nor
did she ever return, though she afterwards, at her son's
request, supplied an enchanted horse to release her hus-
band when in captivity to the Moors. In two Norman
variants the lady forbids the utterance in her presence of
the name of Death.1

These high-born heroines had, forsooth, highly deve-
loped sensibilities. The wife of a Teton (the Tetons are
a tribe of American natives) deserted him, abandoned
her infant to her younger brother's care, and plunged
into a stream, where she became what we call a mermaid,
— and all because her husband had scolded her. In
another American tale, where the wife was a snake, she
deserted him from jealousy. A Tirolese saga speaks of
a man who had a wife of unknown extraction. She had
bidden him, whenever she baked bread, to pour water for
her with his right hand. He poured it once with the
left, to see what would happen. He soon saw, to his

1 "Choice Notes," p. 56; cf. Jahn, p. 364, cited above, p. 270.
(Kennedy relates the story of the Lady of Inchiquin differently.
According to him the husband was never to invite company to the
castle. This is probably more modern than the other version. Kennedy,
p. 282.) Keightley, p. 458, quoting the Quarterly Rerieii', vol. xxii.
Sir Francis Palgrave, though an accurate writer, was guilty of the
unpardonable sin of invariably neglecting to give his authorities. Ibid,
p. 485, quoting Mdlle. Bosquet, " La Normandie Romanesque."

316 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

cost ; for she flew out of the house. The Queen of
Sheba, according to a celebrated Arab writer, was the
daughter of the King of China and a Peri. Her birth
came about on this wise. Her father, hunting, met two
snakes, a black one and a white, struggling together in
deadly combat. He killed the black one, and caused the
white one to be carefully carried to his palace and into
his private apartment. On entering the room the next
day, he was surprised to find a lovely lady, who announced
herself as a Peri, and thanked him for delivering her the
day before from her enemy, the black snake. As a proof
of her gratitude she offered him her sister in marriage,
subject, however, to the proviso that he should never
question her why she did this or that, else she would
vanish, never to be seen again. The king agreed, and
had every reason to be pleased with his beautiful bride.
A son was born to them ; but the lady put it in the fire.
The king wept and tore his beard, but said nothing.
Then a daughter of singular loveliness — afterwards
Balkis, Queen of Sheba — was born : a she-bear appeared
at the door, and the mother flung her babe into its jaws.
The king tore out not only his beard, but the hair of his
head, in silence. A climax, however, came when, in the
course of a war, he and his army had to effect a seven
days' march across a certain desert. On the fifth day
came the queen, a large knife in her hand, and, slitting
the provision-bags and the waterskins, strewed the whole
of the food upon the ground, and brought the king and
his army face to face with death. Her husband could no
longer restrain himself from questioning her. Then she
told him that his vizier, bribed by the enemy, had poisoned
the food and water in order to destroy him and his army,
and that his son had a constitutional defect which would
have prevented him from living three days if she had not
put him in the fire. The she-bear, who was no other
than a trusty old nurse, brought back his daughter at her
call ; but the queen herself disappeared, and he saw her

SWAN-MAIDENS. 317

no more. The Nereid in the Cretan tale referred to in
Chapter IX obstinately refused to speak, although her
lover had fairly conquered her. But after she bore him
a son, the old woman of whom he had previously taken
counsel advised him to heat the oven and threaten his
mistress that if she would not speak he would throw the
boy into it. The Nereid seized the babe, and, crying out :
" Let go my child, dog ! " tore it from his arms and
vanished. It is related by Apollodorus that Thetis, who
was also a Nereid, wished to make her son immortal. To
this end she buried him in fire by night to burn out his
human elements, and anointed him with ambrosia by
day. Peleus, her husband, was not informed of the
reason for this lively proceeding ; and, seeing his child
in the fire, he called out. Thetis, thus thwarted, aban-
doned both husband and child in disgust, and went back
to her native element. In the great Sanskrit epic of the
Mahabharata we are told that King Santanu, Avalking by
a riverside one day, met and fell in love with a beautiful
girl, who told him that she was the river Ganges, and
could only marry him on condition that he never ques-
tioned her conduct. To this he, with a truly royal
gallantry, agreed ; and she bore him several children, all
of whom she threw into the river as soon as they were
born. At last she bore him a boy, Bhishma ; and her
husband begged her to spare his life, whereupon she
instantly changed into the river Ganges and flowed
away. Incompatibility of temper, as evidenced by three
simple disagreements, was a sufficient ground of divorce
for the fairy of Llyn Nelferch, in the parish of Ystrady-
fodwg, in Glamorganshire, from her human husband.
In a variant of the Maori sagas, to which I have more
than once referred, the lady quits her spouse in disgust
because he turns out not to be a cannibal, as she had
hoped from his truculent name, Kai-tangata, or man-eater.
Truly a heartrending instance of misplaced confidence ! x
1 "Journal Amer. F. L.'' vol ii. p. 137 ; vol. i. p. 76 ; Schneller, p.

318 THE SCIENCE OK FAIRY TALES.

Many of these stories belong to the Star's Daughter
type, — that is to say, are wanting in the taboo. But
in every variant of the Swan-maiden group, to whatso-
ever type it may belong, the catastrophe is inevitable
from the beginning. Whether or not it depends on the
breach of an explicit taboo, it is equally the work of
doom. A legend of the Loo-Choo Islands expresses this
feeling in its baldest form. A farmer sees a bright light
in his well, and, on drawing near, beholds a woman
diving and washing in the water. Her clothes, strange
in shape and of a ruddy sunset colour, are hanging on
a pine-tree near at hand. He takes them, and thus
compels her to marry him. She lives with him for ten
years, bearing him a son and a daughter. At the end of
that time her fate is fulfilled ; she ascends a tree during
her husband's absence, and, having bidden her children
farewell, glides off on a cloud and disappears. Both in
its approximation to the Hasan of Bassorah type and in
its attributing the separation of husband and wife to fate,
this tale agrees remarkably with the Lay of Weyland
Smith, where we are told: " From the south through
Mirkwood, to fulfil their fates, the young fairy maidens
flew. The southern ladies alighted to rest on the sea-
strand, and fell to spinning their goodly linen. First
Allrune, Gear's fair daughter, took Egil to her bright
bosom. The second, Swanwhite, took Slagfin. But
Lathgund, her sister, clasped the white neck of Weyland.
Seven winters they stayed there in peace, but the eighth
they began to pine, the ninth they must needs part.
The young fairy maidens hastened to Mirkwood to fulfil
their fates." A Vidyadhari, too, who, in the Katha-
sarit-sagara, is caught in the orthodox manner, dwells
with a certain ascetic until she brings forth a child. She

210; "Rosenol," vol. i. p. 162 ; Child, vol. i. p. 337, quoting Schmidt
and Apollodorus ; " Panjab N. & Q.," vol. ii. p. 207. (In this form the
story is found as a tradition, probably derived from the Mahabharata.)
" Trans. Aberd. Eistedd." p. 225 ; White, vol. i. p. 126.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 319

then calmly remarks to her holy paramour : "My curse
has been brought to an end by living with you. If
you desire to see any more of me, cook this child of
mine with rice and eat it ; you will then be reunited to
me ! " Having said this, she vanished. The ascetic
followed her directions, and was thus enabled to fly after
her. In one of the New Zealand variants we are told
that the time came for Whai-tiri to return to her home.
The same thing is indicated to the wife in a Tirolese
tale by means of a voice, which her husband hears as he
passes through the forest. The voice cried : " Tell Mao
that Mamao is dead." When he repeated this to his
wife she disappeared ; and he never saw or heard of her
after. In view of these narratives there can be little
doubt as to the meaning of the Arab tradition of the
she-demon, from whom one of the clans was descended.
Her union with their human father came suddenly to an
end when she beheld a flash of lightning.1

The Star's Daughter, however, returned to the sky
because she was homesick. Nor is she the only heroine
of these tales who did so ; but homesick heroines are
not very interesting, and I pass to one who had a nobler
reason for quitting her love. The saga is told at
Rarotonga of a girl of dazzling white complexion who
came up out of a fountain and was caught. She became
the wife of a chief. It was the custom of the inhabitants
of the world from which she came to perform the
Caesarean operation on females who were ready to give
birth ; so that the birth of a child involved the mother's
death. When she found on the earth, to her surprise,
that by allowing nature to take its course the mother as
well as the child was saved, she persuaded her husband
to go with her to the lower world to endeavour to put
a stop to the cruel custom. He was ready to accompany

1 Dennys, p. 140; "Corpus Poet. Bor." v.ol. i. p. 168 ; "Katha-'
sarit-sagara," vol. ii. p. 453, cf. p. 577 ; White, vol. i. p. 88 ; Schneller, •
p. 210; Robertson Smith, p. 50.

320 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

her ; but after five several efforts to dive with her
through the fountain to the regions below he was
obliged to abandon the attempt. Sorrowfully embracing
each other, the " peerless one " said : " I alone will go to
the spirit-world to teach what I have learnt from you."
At this she again dived down into the clear waters, and
was never more seen on earth.1

It will not have escaped the reader's attention, that
among the more backward races the taboo appears
generally simpler in form, or is absent altogether.
Among most, if not all, of the peoples who tell stories
wherein this is the case, the marriage bonds are of the
loosest description ; and there is, therefore, nothing very
remarkable in the supernatural bride's conduct. We
might expect to find that as advances are made in
civilization, and marriage becomes more regarded, the
reason for separation would become more and more com-
plex and cogent. Am I going too far in suggesting that
the resumption by the bride of her bird or beast shape
marks a stage in the development of the myth beyond
the Star's Daughter type ; and the formal taboo, where
the human figure is not abandoned, a stage later still ?
In our view, indeed, the taboo is not less irrational, as a
means of putting an end to the marriage, than the
retrieved robe or skin. But we forget how recent in
civilization is the sanctity of the marriage-tie. Even
among Christian nations divorce was practised during
the Middle Ages for very slight reasons, despite the
authority of popes and priests. In Eastern countries the
husband has always had little check on his liberty of
putting away a wife for any cause, or no cause at all ;
and, though unrecognized by the religious books, which
have enforced the husband's rights with so stern a
sanction, this liberty on his part may have been counter-
balanced, oftener than we think, by corresponding liberty
on the wife's part. Beyond doubt this has been so in
1 Gill, p. 265,

SWAN-MAIDENS. 321

India, where it is effected by means of marriage settle-
ments. In Bengal, for instance, a bridegroom is some-
times compelled to execute a deed in which he stipulates
never to scold his Avife, the penalty being a divorce ; and
deeds are not unknown empowering the wife to get a
divorce if her husband ever so much as disagree with
her.1 This is incompatibility of temper with a vengeance !
Even the fairy of Llyn Nelferch was willing to put up
with two disagreements ; and no taboo in story has gone,
or could go, further.

Moreover, some of the taboos are such as the etiquette
of various peoples would entirely approve, though
breaches of them might not be visited so severely as in
the tales. I have already pointed out that the Lady of
the Van Pool would have had a legal remedy for blows
without cause. The romance lies in the wide inter-
pretation she gave to the blows, and their disproportion-
ate punishment. These transfer the hearer's sympathies
from the wife to the husband. Precisely parallel seems
to be the injunction laid upon Hohodemi, by Toyota-
mahime, daughter of the Sea-god. I know not what may
be the rule in Japan ; but it is probably not different
from that which obtains in China. There, as we learn
from the Li Ki, one of the Confucian classics, a wife in
Toyotamahime's condition would, even among the poor,
be placed in a separate apartment ; and her husband,
though it would be his duty to send twice a day to ask
after her, would not see her, nor apparently enter her
room until the child was presented to him to be named.
Curiously enough the prohibition in the Japanese tale is
identical with that imposed by Pressina, herself a water-
fay, the mother of Melusina, according to the romance
of Jean d' Arras written at the end of the fourteenth
century. Melusina and the Esthonian mermaid laid
down another rule : they demanded a recurring period
during which they would be free from marital intrusion.
1 " Indian N. & Q." vol. iv. p. 147.
22

322 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

India is not Europe ; but it cannot be thought quite
irrelevant to observe that much more than this is
commonly secured to a bride in many parts of India.
For by the marriage settlement it is expressly agreed
that she is to go to her father's house as often as she
likes ; and if her husband object, she is empowered in
the deed to bring an action against him for false im-
prisonment.1

Here we may leave the subject of the taboo. Some-
thing, however, must be said on the Swan-maiden as
divine ancestress. But first of all, let me advert to one
or two cases where divinity is ascribed without progeni-
torship. The Maori heroine and her husband are wor-
shipped. They do not appear to be considered actual
parents of any New Zealand clan ; but the husband at all
events would be deemed one of the same blood. Passing
.over to New Guinea, we find a remarkable saga con-
cerning the moon. The moon is a daughter of the
earth, born by the assistance of a native of the village
of Keile, about twenty miles to the eastward of Port
Moresby. A long while ago, digging deeper than usual,
he came upon a round, smooth, silvery, shining object,
which, after he had got it out and lifted it up, grew
rapidly larger and larger until it floated away. He
set out to search for it ; nor did he desist until one day
he came upon a large pool in the river and found a
beautiful woman bathing. On the bank lay her grass
petticoat where she had cast it off. He sat down upon
it ; and when her attention was attracted to him by his
dogs, they recognized one another. She was the moon,
and he was the man who had dug her up out of the
earth ; and he claimed her as his wife. " If I marry
you," she replied, "you must die; but as you have
touched my clothes you must die in any case, and so
for one day I will marry you, and then you must go

1 " Sacred Books of the East," vol. xxvii. pp. 471, 475,476 ; " Indian
N. & Q." vol. iv. p. 147.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 323

home to your village and prepare for death." Accord-
ingly they were married for one day ; and the man
then went home, made his funeral feast and died. The
moon in due course married the sun, as it was her doom
to do ; but his intolerable jealousies rendered their union
so wretched that they at last agreed to see as little of one
another as possible. This accounts for their conduct ever
since. An Annamite legend relates that a Avoodcutter
found some fairies bathing at a lovely fountain. He took
possession of the raiment of one, and hid it at the
bottom of his rice-barn. In this way he compelled its
owner to become his Avife ; and they lived together
happily for some years. Their son Avas three years old
Avhen, in her husband's absence, she sold their stock of
rice. On clearing out the barn her clothes Avere found.
She bade fareAvell to the child, left her comb stuck in his
collar, donned her clothes and fleAv aAvay. When her
husband returned and learned how matters stood, he
took his son and repaired to the fountain, Avhere happily
they fell in Avith some of his Avife's servants Avho Avere
sent thither to draw Avater. Engaging them in con-
versation, he caused his son to drop the comb into one
of the Avater-jars. By this means his Avife recognized
them, and sent an enchanted handkerchief Avhich enabled
him to fly and folloAv her servants to her home. After
aAvhile sh~ sent him and her son back to the earth,
promising to get permission in a short time to return
and live with them. By the carelessness of one of her
servants, hoAA^ever, both father and son Avere dropped
into the sea and drowned. Apprised of the catastrophe
by ravens, the fairy transformed her servant, by way of
punishment, into — or according to a variant, became
herself — the morning star, Avhile father and son became
the evening star. And now the morning star and the
evening star perpetually seek one another, but never
again can they meet.1

1 Romilly, p. 134 ; Landes, p. 123.

324 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

Turning to the instances where ancestry is claimed, we
find that the chiefs of the Ati clan are descended from
"the peerless one" of Raratonga. The Arawak Indians of
Guiana reckon descent in the female line. One of their
families takes its name from its foremother, the warlock's
daughter who was provided with the dogskin mentioned
on a previous page. Another family deduces its name
and pedigree from an earth-spirit married to one of its
ancestors ; but it does not appear whether any Swan-
maiden myth attaches to her. The fish puttin is sacred
among the Dyaks. On no account will they eat it, be-
cause they would be eating their relations, for they are
descended from the lady whose first and last form was a
puttin. In other words, the ptittin is their totem. A
family of the town of Chama on the Gold Coast claims in
like manner to be descended from the fish-woman of
whose story I have given an outline ; and a legend to
the same effect is current at the neighbouring town of
Appam ; nor in either instance do the members of the
family dare to eat of the fish of the kind to which they
believe their ancestress belonged. The totem superstition
is manifest in the case of the Phoenician, or Babylonian,
goddess Derceto, who was represented as woman to the
waist and thence downward fish. She was believed to
have been a woman, the mother of Semiramis, and to
have thrown herself in despair into a lake. Her wor-
shippers abstained from eating fish ; though fish were
offered to her in sacrifice, and golden fish suspended in
her temple. Melusina was the mother of the family of
Lusignan. She used to appear and shriek on one of the
castle towers as often as the head of the family, or a King
of France, was to die, or when any disaster was about to
happen to the realm, or to the town of Luxemburg. She
was also the author of certain presages of plenty or famine.
Similar legends are told of the castles of Argouges and
Ranes in Normandy. If the Irish Banshee tales could be
minutely examined, it is probable that they would resolve

SWAN-MAIDENS. 325

themselves into stories of supernatural ancestresses. To
the Vila of the Illyrian story, and the fairy of Sir Francis
Palgrave's Spanish story, noble families attribute their
origin. A family in the Tirol is descended from the lady
who insisted on her husband's pouring water with his
right hand ; and the members of a noble Greek family
have the blood of a Nereid in their veins.1

Though the heroine of the Van Pool might never
return to her husband, she was drawn back to earth by
the care of her three sons, who, by means of her instruc-
tions, became celebrated physicians. On one occasion
she accompanied them to a place still called Pant-y-
Meddygon (the hollow, or dingle, of the physicians), and
there pointed out to them the various herbs which grew
around, and revealed their medicinal virtues. It is
added that, in order that their knowledge should not be
lost, the physicians wisely committed the same to
writing for the benefit of mankind throughout all ages.
A collection of medical recipes purporting to be this very
work still exists in a manuscript preserved at Jesus
College, Oxford, which is now in course of publication by
Professor Rhys and Mr. J. Gwenogvryn Evans, and is
known as the Red Book of Hergest. An edition of the
" Meddygon Myddfai," as this collection is called, was
published by the Welsh MSS. Society thirty years ago,
with an English translation. It professes to have been
written under the direction of Rhiwallon the Physician
and his sons Kadwgan, Gruffydd, and Einion ; and they
are called " the ablest and most eminent of the physicians
of their time and of the time of Rhys Gryg, their lord,
and the lord of Dinevor, the nobleman who kept their
rights and privileges whole unto them, as was meet."
This nobleman was Prince of South Wales in the early
part of the thirteenth century ; and his monumental effigy

1 Bent, p. 13. The Nereids in modern Greek folklore are conceived
in all points as Swan-maidens. They fly through the air by means of
magical raiment (Schmidt, p. 133)-

326 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

is in the cathedral of St. David's. Mr. Gwenogvryn
Evans, than whom there is no higher authority, is of
opinion that the manuscript was written at the end of
the fourteenth century — that is to say, about two hundred
years after the date at which the marriage between the
youth of Blaensawdde and his fairy love is alleged to
have taken place ; and it is believed by the editor of the
published volume to be a copy of a still more ancient
manuscript now in the British Museum. Yet it contains
no reference to the legend of the Van Pool. The volume
in question includes a transcript of another manuscript of
the work, which is ascribed in the colophon to Howel
the Physician, who, writing in the first person, claims to
be " regularly descended in the male line from the said
Einion, the son of Rhiwallon, the physician of Myddfai,
being resident in Cilgwryd, in Gower." This recension
of the work is much later in date than the former. A
portion of it cannot be older than the end of the fifteenth
century ; and the manuscript from which it was printed
was probably the result of accretions extending over a
long period of time, down to the year 1743, when it Avas'
copied "from the book of John Jones, Physician of
Myddfai, the last lineal descendant of the family." The
remedies it contains, though many of them are antique
enough, and superstitious enough, are of various dates
and sources ; and, so far from being attributed to a super-
natural origin, they are distinctly said to " have been
proved to be the best and most suitable for the human
body through the research and diligent study of Rhi-
wallon " and his three sons. The negative evidence of
the "Meddygon Myddfai," therefore, tends to show that
the connection of the Van Pool story with the Physicians
is of comparatively recent date.1

And yet it is but natural (if we may use such an ex-
pression) that a mythical creature like the Lady of the

1 See my article on the " Meddygon Myddfai," entitled " Old Welsh
Folk Medicine," " Y Cymmrodor," vol. ix. p. 227.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 3^7

Lake should be the progenitor of an extraordinary off-
spring. Elsewhere we have seen her sisters the totems
of clans, the goddesses of nations, the parents of great
families and renowned personages. Melusina gave birth
to monsters of ugliness and evil,1 and through them to a
long line of nobles. So the heroine of the Llanberis
legend had two sons and two daughters, all of whom
were remarkable. The elder son became a great
physician, and all his descendants were celebrated for
their proficiency in medicine. The second son was a
Welsh Tubal-cain. One of the daughters invented the
small ten-stringed harp, and the other the spinning
wheel. " Thus," we are told, " were introduced the arts
of medicine, manufactures, music, and woollen work ! "
If, then, there were a family at Myddfai celebrated for
their leechcraft, and possessed of lands and influence, as
we know Avas the fact, their hereditary skill would seem to
an ignorant peasantry to demand a supernatural origin ;
and their wealth and material power would not refuse
the additional consideration which a connection with the
legend of the neighbouring pool would bring them.

But for all that the incident of the reappearance by
the mother to her children may have been part of the
original story. The Carnarvonshire fairies of various
tales analogous to that of the Van Pool are recalled by
maternal love to the scenes of their wedded life ; and
the hapless father hears his wife's voice outside the win-
dow chanting pathetically :

" If my son should feel it cold,
Let him wear his father's coat ;
If the fair one feel the cold,
Let her wear my petticoat ! "

Whatever he may have thought of these valuable direc-

1 A certain German family used to excuse its faults by attributing
them to a sea-fay who was reckoned among its ancestors ; Birlinger,
" Aus Schwaben," vol. i. p. 7, quoting the " Zimmerische Chronik."

328 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

tions, they hardly seem to us sufficient to have brought
the lady up from u the bottomless pool of Convrion " to
utter. There is more sense in the mother's song in a
Kaffir tale. This woman was not of purely supernatural
origin. She was born in consequence of her (human)
mother's eating pellets given her by a bird. Married to
a chief by whom she was greatly beloved, it was noticed
that she never went out of doors by day. In her hus-
band's absence her father-in-law forced her to go and
fetch water from the river for him in the daytime. Like
the woman by the waters of the Rhone, she was drawn
down into the river. That evening her child cried
piteously ; and the nurse took it to the stream in the
middle of the night, singing :

" It is crying, it is crying,
The child of Sihamba Ngenyanga ;
It is crying, it will not be pacified.'

The mother thereupon came out of the water, and
wailed this song as she put the child to her breast :

" It is crying, it is crying,

The child of the walker by moonlight.

It was done intentionally by people whose names

are unmentionable.1
They sent her for water during the clay.
She tried to dip with the milk-basket, and then it sank.
Tried to dip with the ladle, and then it sank.
Tried to dip with the mantle, and then it sank."

The result of the information conveyed in these words
was her ultimate recovery by her husband with the
assistance of her mother, who was a skilful sorceress.2

1 Namely, her husband's father, whose name she was not permitted
by etiquette to utter. See above, p. 309.

3 Theal, p. 54. The Teton lady who became a mermaid was sum-
moned, by singing an incantation, to suckle her child ; "Journal Amer.
F. L." vol. ii. p. 137.

SWAN- MAIDENS. 329

A Finnish tale belonging to the Cinderella group
represents the heroine as changed into a reindeer-cow by
an ogress who takes her place as wife and mother. But
her babe will not be comforted ; so a woman, to whose
care he is committed, carries him into the forest, and
sings the following incantation :

" Little blue eyes, little red-fell,
Come thou thine own son to suckle,
Feed whom thou hast given birth to !
Of that cannibal nought will he,
Never drinks from that bloodsucker ;
For her breasts to him are loathsome,
Nor can hunger drive him to them."

The reindeer cannot withstand this appeal. She casts her
skin, and comes in human form to suckle her child. This
results, after two repetitions in the husband's burning the
reindeer hide and clasping her in his arms. But, like
Peleus, he has to hold her fast in spite of various trans-
formations, until he has overcome the charm and has
her once more in her pristine shape ! z

It was not strength so much as boldness and tenacity
that conquered here. In the Kaffir story the husband's
first attempt to pull his wife out of the water by sheer
force failed. Thus, too, in one of the Tirolese stories
already mentioned the husband lies in wait for his wife
when she returns, as usual, to comb her little girl's
hair on a Saturday. He catches her by the arm as
she enters ; and she tells him that if he can hold
her for a little while she must stay : otherwise she will
never come again. All his strength is, however, too
little to struggle successfully with her. The mother's
visits to her children are, indeed, a frequent sequel to the
story ; and occasionally the tie which compels her to
return is taken advantage of by the forsaken husband to
obtain possession of her again. But fraud, not force, is

1 Schreck, p. 71.

33° THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

the means employed, as in the Lapp story of the Maiden
out of the Sea, where the mermaid's clothes are once
more confiscated. In a legend of Llyn y Dywarchen (the
Lake of the Sod), not very far from Beddgelert, the
water-nymph subsequently appears to her husband, con-
versing with him from a floating turf while he stands on
the shore. Here the motive of the reappearance is the
unusual one of conjugal, rather than parental, affection.1

I must not omit to add that the first Sunday in
August is kept in the neighbourhood of the Van Pool as
the anniversary of the fairy's return to the lake. It is
believed that annually on that day a commotion takes
place in the lake ; its waters boil to herald the approach
of the lady with her oxen. It was, and still is (though in
decreasing force), the custom for large numbers of people
to make a pilgrimage to witness the phenomenon ; and it
is said that the lady herself appears in mermaid form
upon the surface, and combs her tresses. I have little
doubt that in this superstition we have the relic of a
religious festival in honour of an archaic divinity whose
abode was in the lake. She has, perhaps, only escaped
being an enchanted princess by being a Welsh rather
than a German goddess. If the mermaid form be of
genuine antiquity, — about which I confess to a lurking
suspicion, — it is another bond Avith the Scottish stories,
with Melusina and with Derceto.2

We have now considered the principal points of the
myth. The feather-robe, or skin, we found absent from all
its more archaic examples. There, no change of form
occurs, or when it does occur it is accomplished by simple
transformation. When present, the robe is a mere symbol
of the lady's superhuman nature, or else the result of

1 Poestion, p. 55 ; " Cymru Fu," p. 474.

2 "Y Cymmrodor," vol. iv. p. 177, vol. vi. p. 203. I have also
made inquiries at Ystradgynlais, in the neighbourhood of the lake, the
results of which confirm the statements of Professor Rhys' correspon-
dents ; but I have failed to elicit any further information.

SWAN-MAIDENS. 331

enchantment. These are more recent types, and are all,
or nearly all, miirchcn. In the later sagas, such as those
of Melusina and the Lady of the Van Pool, it is again
absent ; though relics of the change of form frequently
remain.

Capture of the Swan-maiden proper is effected by theft
of her robe : in other types either by main force, or more
frequently with her consent, more or less willingly given,
or by her own initiative.

We then passed to the more important subject of the
taboo. The taboo, strictly speaking, only appears where
the peltry is absent. Several of its forms correspond
with rules of antique etiquette. Others recall special
points connected with savage life, such as the dislike of
iron and steel, and the prejudice against the mention of
a personal name. Other prohibitions are against re-
proaching the wife with her origin, against reminding
her of her former condition, or against questioning her
conduct or crossing her will. But whether the taboo be
present or absent, the loss of the wife is equally inevitable,
equally foreseen from the beginning. It is the doom of
the connection between a simple man and a superhuman
female. Even where the feather-robe is absent the
taboo is not always found. Among savages the marriage-
bond is often very loose : -notably in the more backward
races. And among these the superhuman wife's excuse
for flight is simpler ; and sometimes it is only an arbitrary
exercise of will. The taboo grows up with the advance
in civilization.

Lastly, we considered the Swan-maiden as divine
ancestress. We found her resident in heaven, AVC found
her worshipped, we found her as the totem of a clan.
The totemistic stories are widely spread, — so widely,
indeed, as to afford a presumption that AVC have in them
a clue to the Avhole meaning of the myth. For not only
have Ave the complete totemistic form, as among the
Dyaks and the tribes of the Gold Coast ; but AVC find the

332 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

superstition fading through the goddess Derceto into
modern sagas of the supernatural mother of a family,
who to her sometimes owe extraordinary powers, and
over whose fate she continually watches.

Here, then, our study of this beautiful myth must close.
I am far from suggesting that the subject is exhausted.
On the contrary, it is so large and so complex that I
have rigidly abstained from anything more than a very
imperfect examination of its principal features. On some
of the points here partially discussed I shall have some-
thing more to add in our final chapter, when discussing
certain theories on the fairy beliefs.

CHAPTER XII.

CONCLUSION.

Retrospect — The fairies of Celtic and Teutonic races of the same
nature as the supernatural beings celebrated in the traditions of
other nations — All superstitions of supernatural beings explicable
by reference to the conceptions of savages — Liebrecht's Ghost
Theory of some Swan-maiden myths — MacRitchie's Finn Theory —
The amount of truth in them — Both founded on too narrow an
induction — Conclusion.

WE have in the preceding pages examined some of the
principal groups of tales and superstitions relating to
Fairies proper, — that is to say, the Elves and Fays of
Celtic and Teutonic tradition.

Dealing in the first instance with the sagas found in
this country, or in Germany, our investigations have by
no means ended there ; for in order to understand these
sagas, we have found occasion to refer again and again to
the marchcn, as well as the sagas, of other European
nations, — nay, to the traditions of races as wide apart from
our own in geographical position and culture, as the
South Sea Islanders, the Ainos, and the Aborigines of
America. And we have found among peoples in the
most distant parts of the globe similar stories and super-
stitions. Incidentally, too, we have learned something of
the details of archaic practices, and have found the two
great divisions of Tradition, — belief and practice, — in-
separably interwoven.

I do not pretend to have touched upon all the myths

334 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

referring to Fairies, as thus strictly defined ; and the
Kobolds and Puck, the Household Spirits and Mischievous
Demons, have scarcely been so much as mentioned. Want
of space forbids our going further. It is hoped, how-
ever, that enough has been said, not merely to give the
readers an idea of the Fairy Mythology correct as far as it
goes, but, beyond that, to vindicate the method pursued
in the investigation, as laid down in our second chapter,
by demonstrating the essential identity of human
imagination all over the Avorld, and by tracing the stories
with which Ave have been dealing to a more barbarous
state of society and a more archaic plane of thought. It
now remains, therefore, to recall what we have ascer-
tained concerning the nature and origin of the Fairies,
and briefly to consider two rival theories.

We started from some of the ascertained facts of savage
thought and savage life. The doctrine of Spirits formed
our first proposition. This we defined to be the belief
held by savages that man consists of body and spirit ; that
it is possible for the spirit to quit the body and roam at
will in different shapes about the world, returning to the
body as tc its natural home ; that in the spirit's absence
the body sleeps, and that it dies if the spirit return not ;
further, that the universe swarms with spirits embodied
and disembodied, because everything in the world has a
spirit, and all these spirits are analogues of the human
spirit, having the same will and acting from the same
motives ; and that if by chance any of these spirits be
ejected from its body, it may continue to exist without a
body, or it may find and enter a new body, not necessarily
such an one as it occupied before, but one quite different.
The doctrine of Transformation was another of our
premises : that is to say, the belief held by savages in
the possibility of a change of form while preserving the
same identity. A third premise was the belief in Witch-
craft, or the power of certain persons to cause the trans-
formations just mentioned, and to perform by means of

CONCLUSION. 335

spells, or symbolic actions and mystical words, various
other feats beyond ordinary human power. And there
were others to which I need not now refer, all of
which were assumed to be expressed in the tales
and songs, and in the social and political institutions,
of savages. Along with these, we assumed the hypo-
thesis of the evolution of civilization from savagery.
By this I mean that just as the higher orders of animal
and vegetable life have been developed from germs which
appeared on this planet incalculable ages ago ; so during
a past of unknown length the civilization of the highest
races of men has been gradually evolving through the
various stages of savagery and barbarism up to what we
know it to-day ; and so every nation, no matter how
barbarous, has arisen from a lower stage than that in
which it is found, and is on its way, if left to its natural
processes, to something higher and better. This is an
hypothesis which does not, of course, exclude the possi-
bility of temporary and partial relapses, such as we know
have taken place in the history of every civilized country,
any more than it excludes the possibility of the decay and
death of empires ; but upon the whole it claims that
progress and not retrogression is the law of human
society. The different stages of this progress have
everywhere left their mark on the tales and songs, the
sayings and superstitions, the social, religious and political
institutions — in other words, on the belief and practice —
of mankind.

Starting from these premises, we have examined five
groups, or cycles, of tales concerning the Fairy Myth-
ology. We have found Fairyland very human in its
organization. Its inhabitants marry, sometimes among
themselves, sometimes into mankind. They have
children born to them ; and they require at such times
female assistance. They steal children from men, and
leave their own miserable brats in exchange ; they steal
women, and sometimes leave in their stead blocks of

336 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

wood, animated by magical art, or sometimes one of
themselves. In the former case the animation does not
usually last very long, and the women is then supposed
to die. Their females sometimes in turn become captive
to men. Unions thus formed are, however, not lasting,
until the husband has followed the wife to her own
home, and conquered his right to her afresh by some
great adventure. This is not always in the story : pre-
sumably, therefore, not always possible. On the other
hand, he who enters Fairyland and partakes of fairy
food is spell-bound : he cannot return — at least for many
years, perhaps for ever — to the land of men. Fairies
are grateful to men for benefits conferred, and resentful
for injuries. They never fail to reward those who do
them a kindness ; but their gifts usually have conditions
attached, which detract from their value and sometimes
become a source of loss and misery. Nor do they forget
to revenge themselves on those who offend them ; and
to watch them, when they do not desire to be manifested,
is a mortal offence. Their chief distinction from men is
in their unbounded magical powers, whereof we have had
several illustrations. They make things seem other than
they are ; they appear and disappear at will ; they make
long time seem short, or short time long ; they change
their own forms ; they cast spells over mortals, and keep
them spell-bound for ages.

All these customs and all these powers are asserted of
the Fairies properly so called. And when we look at
the superstitions of other races than the Celts and
Teutons, to which our inquiries have been primarily
directed, we find the same things asserted of all sorts of
creatures. Deities, ancestors, witches, ghosts, as well as
animals of every kind, are endowed by the belief of
nations all over the world with powers precisely similar
to those of the Fairies, and with natures and social
organizations corresponding with those of men. These
beliefs can only be referred to the same origin as -the

CONCLUSION. 337

fairy superstitions ; and all arise out of the doctrine of
spirits, the doctrine of transformations, and the belief in
witchcraft, held by savage tribes.

But here I must, at the risk of some few repetitions,
notice a theory on the subject of the Swan-maiden myth
enunciated by Liebrecht. That distinguished writer, in
his book on Folklore, devotes a section to the consider-
ation of the group which has occupied us in the last two
chapters, and maintains, with his accustomed wealth of
allusion and his accustomed ingenuity, that some at
least of the Swan-maidens are nothing more nor less than
ghosts of the departed, rescued from the kingdom of
darkness for a while, but bound to return thither after
a short respite here with those whom they love. * Now
it is clear that if Swan-maiden tales are to be resolved
into ghost stories, all other supernatural beings, gods and
devils as well as fairies and ghosts, will turn out to b^
nothing but spectres of the dead. A summary of his
argument, and of the reasons for rejecting it, will, there-
fore, not only fill up any serious gaps in our discussion
of the main incidents of the myth in question ; but it
will take a wider sweep, and include the whole subject
of the present volume.

His argument, as I understand it, is based, first, on the
terms of the taboo. The object of the taboo, he thinks,
is to avoid any remark being made, any question being
asked, any object being presented, which would remind
these spirits of their proper home, and awaken a longing
they cannot withstand to return. There is an old
Teutonic legend of a knight who came in a little boat
drawn by a swan to succour and wed a distressed lady,
on whom he laid a charge never to ask whence he came,
or in what country he was born. When she breaks this
commandment the swan reappears and fetches him away.
So the nightmare-wife, as we have seen, in one of the
tales vanishes on being asked how she became a night-
mare. Again, the fay of Argouges disappears on the

23

33^ THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

name of Death being mentioned in her presence. A fair
maiden in an Indian tale, who is found by the hero in
the neighbourhood of a fountain, and bears the name of
Bheki (Frog), forbids her husband ever to let her see
water. When she is thirsty and begs him for water, the
doom is fulfilled on his bringing it to her. A similar
tale may be added from Ireland, though Liebrecht does
not mention it. A man who lived near Lough Sheelin,
in County Meath, was annoyed by having his corn eaten
night after night. So he sat up to watch ; and to his
astonishment a number of horses came up out of the lake
driven by a most beautiful woman, whom he seized and
induced to marry him. She made the stipulation that
she was never to be allowed to see the lake again ; and
for over twenty years she lived happily with him, till
one day she strolled out to look at the haymakers, and
caught sight of the distant water. With a loud cry she
flew straight to it, and vanished beneath the surface.1

Liebrecht's next reason is based upon the place where
the maiden is found, — a forest, or a house in the forest.
In this connection he refers to the tavern, or drinking-
shop, on the borders of the forest, where Wild Edric
found his bride, and points to a variant of the story, also
given by Walter Map, in which she is said, in so many
words, to have been snatched from the dead.2 The
forest, he fancies, is the place of the dead, the under-
world. Lastly, he gives numerous legends of the
Middle Ages, — some of which found their way into the
" Decameron," that great storehouse of floating tales,
and other literary works of imagination, as well as into
chronicles, — and instances from more modern folklore,
wherein a mistress or wife dies, or seems to die, and is
buried, yet is afterwards recovered from the tomb, and
lives to wed, if a maiden, and to bear children. He
supports these by references to the vampire superstitions,

1 Liebrecht, p. 54 ; " F. L. Journal," vol. vii. p. 312.

2 Map, Dist. iv. c. IO.

CONCLUSION* 333

and to the case of Osiris, who returned after death to
Isis and became the father of Horus. And, following
Uhland, he compares the sleepthorn, with which Odin
pricked the Valkyrie, Brynhild, and so put her into a
magic slumber, to the stake which was driven into the
corpse suspected of being a vampire, to prevent its rising
any more from the grave and troubling the living.

Now it may be admitted that there is much that is
plausible, much even that is true, in this theory. It
might be urged in its behalf that (as we have had more
than one occasion in the course of this work to know)
Fairyland is frequently not to be distinguished from the
world of the dead. Time is not known there ; and the
same consequences of permanent abode follow upon
eating the food of the dead and the food of the fairies.
Further, when living persons are stolen by fairies, mere
dead images are sometimes left in their place. These
arguments, and such as these, might well be added to
Liebrecht's ; and it would be hard to say that a for-
midable case was not made out. And yet the theory
fails to take account of some rather important consider-
ations. Perhaps the strongest point made — a point
insisted on with great power — is that of the taboo. The
case of the lady of Argouges is certainly very striking,
though, taken by itself, it is far from conclusive. It
might very well be that a supernatural being, in re-
maining here, would be obliged to submit to mortality,
contrary perhaps to its nature ; and to remind it of this
might fill it with an irresistible impulse to fly from so
horrible a fate. I do not say this is the explanation, but
it is as feasible as the other. In the Spanish story it was
not the utterance of the name of Death, but of a holy
name — the name of Mary — which compelled the wife to
leave her husband. Here she was unquestionably re-
garded by Spanish orthodoxy, not as a spirit of the dead,
but as a foul fiend, able to assume what bodily form it
would, but bound to none. The prohibition of inquiry as}

340 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

to the bride's former home may arise not so much from
a desire to avoid the recollection, as from the resentment
of impertinent curiosity, which we have seen arouses
excessive annoyance in supernatural bosoms. The re-
sentment of equally impertinent reproaches, or a remi-
niscence of savage etiquette that avoids the direct
name, may account at least as well for other forms of the
taboo. Liebrecht suggests most ingeniously that assault
and battery must strike the unhappy elf still more
strongly than reproaches, as a difference between her
present and former condition, and remind her still more
importunately of her earlier home, and that this explains
the prohibition of the " three causeless blows." It may be
so, though there is no hint of this in the stories ; and yet
her former condition need not have been that of a ghost
of the dead, nor her earlier home the tomb. By far the
greater number of these stories represent the maiden as
a water-nymph ; but it is the depths of the earth rather
than the water which are commonly regarded as the
dwelling-place of the departed. Moreover, the corre-
spondence I have tried to point out between the etiquette
of various peoples and the taboo, — such, for instance, as
the ban upon a husband's breaking into his wife's se-
clusion at a delicate moment in his family history, — would
remain, on Liebrecht's theory, purely accidental. Nor
would the theory account for the absence of a taboo in
the lower savagery, nor. for the totemistic character of
the lady, nor, least of all, for the peltry which is the
most picturesque, if not the most important, incident in
this group of tales.

In fact, the only direct evidence for Liebricht's conten-
tion is the variant of Wild Edric's legend alluded to by
Map. His words are, speaking of Alnoth, Edric's son,
a great benefactor of the see of Hereford : " The man
whose mother vanished into air openly in the sight of
rnany.^ persons, being indignant at her husband's re-
| teaching her that he had carried her off by force from

CONCLUSION. 341

among the dead (quod cam a mor tin's rapm'ssct)" Upon
this it is to be observed that the expression here made
use of cannot be regarded as one which had accidentally
dropped out of the narrative previously given ; but it is
an allusion to an independent and inconsistent version,
given in forgetfulness that the writer had already in
another part of his work related the story at large and
with comments. There he had explicitly called Alnoth
— the heir and offspring of a devil (dcemoii), and had
expressed his wonder that such a person should have
given up his whole inheritance (namely, the manor of
Ledbury North, which he made over to the see of Here-
ford in gratitude for the miraculous cure of his palsy) to
Christ in return for his restored health, and spent the
rest of his life as a pilgrim. Mediaeval writers (especially
ecclesiastics) were in a difficulty in describing fairies.
They looked upon them as having an objective existence ;
and yet they knew not how to classify them. Fairies were
certainly neither departed saints nor holy angels. Beside
these two kinds of spirits, the only choice left Avas between
devils and ghosts of the wicked dead, or, at most, of
the dead who had no claims to extraordinary goodness.
They did not believe in any other creatures which could
be identified with these mysterious elves. It is no
wonder, therefore, if they were occasionally perplexed,
occasionally inconsistent, sometimes denouncing them as
devils, at other times dismissing them as ghosts.1

This is what seems to have happened to Map. In the

1 The sect of the Cabalists, indeed, believed in the existence of spirits
of nature, embodiments or representatives of the four elements, which
they called respectively gnomes, sylphs, salamanders, and ondines. To
this strange sect some of the savage opinions on the subject of spirits
seem to have been transmitted in a philosophical form from classical
antiquity. They taught that it was possible for the philosopher by
austerity and study to rise to intercourse with these elemental spirits,
and even to obtain them in marriage. But the orthodox regarded the
Cabalists as magicians and their spirits as foul incubi. See Lecky,
" History of Rationalism," vol. i. p. 46.

342 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

two chapters immediately preceding, he has given two
legends illustrating each horn of the dilemma. One of
these relates the marriage of Henno With-the-Teeth,
who found a lovely maiden in a grove on the coast of
Normandy. She was sitting alone, apparelled in royal
silk, and weeping. Her beauty and her tears attracted
the gallant knight, to whom, in response to his questions,
she told a cock-and-bull story about her father having
brought her, all unwilling as she was, by sea to be
married to the King of France ; but having been driven
by a storm on the shore, she said she had landed, and
then her father had taken advantage of a sudden change
of wind to sail away, leaving her to her fate. Henno
was an easy conquest : he took her home and married
her. Unluckily, however, he had a mother who had
her suspicions. She noticed that her fair daughter-in-
law, though she went often to church, always upon some
trumpery excuse came late, so as to avoid being sprinkled
with holy water, and as regularly left before the conse-
cration of the elements. So this virtuous old vixen
determined to watch one Sunday morning ; and she
discovered that after Henno had gone to church, his wife,
transformed into a serpent, entered a bath, and in a little
while, issuing upon a cloth which her maid had spread
out for her, she tore it into pieces with her teeth before
resuming human form. The maid afterwards went
through the like performance, her mistress waiting upon
her. All this was in due course confided to Henno, who,
in company with a priest, unexpectedly burst in the next
time upon his wife and her servant, and sprinkled them
with holy water. Mistress and maid thereupon with a
great yell bounded out through the roof and disappeared.
Clearly these ladies were devils : no other creatures
with self-respect would be guilty of such transformations
and such constant disregard of the proprieties at church.
Ghosts get their turn in Map's other narrative. It con-
cerns a man whose wife had died. After sorrowing long

CONCLUSION. 343

for her death, he found her one night in a deep and
solitary dale amid a number of women. With great
ioy he seized her, and, carrying her off, lived with her
again for many years and had a numerous progeny. Not
a few of her descendants were living when Map wrote,
and were known as the children of the dead woman.
This, of course, is not a Swan-maiden story at all. At
the end of Chapter V. I have referred to some similar
tales ; and what we learned during our discussion of the
subject of Changelings may lead us to suspect that we
have here in an imperfect form a story of the exchange
of an adult woman for a lifeless image, and her recovery
from the hands of her ravishers. This is by no means
the same plot as that of the stories recounted by Liebrecht
in which the wife or the betrothed is rescued from the
grave. Those stories, at least in warm climates where
burials are hurried, and in rude ages when medical skill
is comparatively undeveloped, are all within the bounds
of possibility. There does not appear in them any trace
of mythology, — hardly even of the supernatural ; and he
would be a bold man who would deny that a substratum
of fact may not underlie some of them. To establish
their relationship with the group we are now considering,
links of a much more evident character are wanting.
The fact that they are traditional is not of itself sufficient.
The fairy of the Forest of Dean had not revived after
death, or supposed death ; nor had she been recovered
from supernatural beings who had stolen her away.
Map's account, to whatever his expression from the dead
may point, is inconsistent with either the one or the
other. Rather she was stolen from her own kindred, to
become the wife of him who had won her by his own
right arm.

But a single instance, and that instance either incon-
sistent with the analogous traditions, or unable to supply
a cogent or consistent explanation of them, is not a
a very safe basis for a theory. What is it worth when it

344 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

is inconsistent even with the theory itself? Indeed, if
it were consistent with the theory, we might match it
with another instance wholly irreconcilable. Mikailo
Ivanovitch in the Russian ballad marries a Swan-maiden,
who, unlike some of the ladies just mentioned, insists
upon being first baptized into the Christian faith. She
makes the stipulation that when the one of them dies the
other shall go living into the grave with the dead, and
there abide for three months. She herself dies. Mikailo
enters the grave with her, and there conquers a dragon
which comes to feast on the dead bodies. The dragon is
compelled to fetch the waters of life and death, by means
of which the hero brings his dead love back to life.
Marya, the White Swan, however, proved herself so
ungrateful that after awhile she took another husband,
and twice she acted the part of Delilah to Mikailo. The
third time she tried it he was compelled in self-defence to
put an end to her wiles by cutting off her head. This is
honest, downright death. There is no mistaking it. But
then it is impossible that Marya, the White Swan, was
a mere ghost filched from the dead and eager to return.
Yet the story of Marya is equally a Swan-maiden story,
and is just as good to build a theory on as Map's variant
of Wild Edric.1

In replying, however, to the arguments of so learned
and acute a writer as Liebrecht, it is not enough to point
out these distinctions and inconsistencies : it is not
enough to show that the terms of the taboo do not
warrant the construction he has put upon them, nor
that he has failed to account for very significant incidents.
If he has mistaken the meaning of the legends, we should
be able to make clear the source of his error. It arises,
I hold, from an imperfect apprehension of the archaic
philosophy underlying the narratives. Liebrecht's com-
parisons are, with one exception, limited to European
variants. His premises were thus too narrow to admit of
1 Hapgoocl, p. 214.

CONCLUSION.

345

his making valid deductions. Perhaps even yet we are
hardly in a position to do this ; but at all events the
sources of possible error are diminished by the wider
area we are able to survey, and from the evidence of
which we reason. We have compared the stories, both
mediaeval and modern, mentioned by Liebrecht, with
miirchcn and sagas told among nations outside European
influence in various degrees of civilization, down to the
savagery of Kaffirs and Dyaks. We have succeeded in
classifying their differences, and in spite of them we have
found all the tales in substantial agreement. They are
all built on the same general plan ; the same backbone
of thought runs through them ; and between them all
there is no greater divergence than that which in the
physical realm separates mammal from bird, or bird from
reptile. It is inevitable to conclude that even the most
recently discovered folktale of them has come to us from
a distant period when our forefathers were in the same
rude state as Dyaks and South Sea Islanders. No actual
adventure of Wild Edric or Raymond of Lusignan
gave rise to these stories. English patriot and Burgun-
dian Count were only the names whereon they fastened,
— the mountains Avhich towered above the plain and
gathered about their heads the vapours already floating
in the atmosphere. We must therefore go back far
beyond the Middle Ages to learn in what manner we are
to understand these stories, — back to the state of savagery
whence the inhabitants of Europe had long emerged
when Map and Gervase wrote, but of which the relics
linger among us even yet.

The necessarily meagre exposition of some of the most
salient characteristics of savage thought with which we
started has been illustrated and its outlines filled in to
some extent in the course of the subsequent discussions.
I need not, therefore, do more than draw attention as
briefly as possible to those characteristics that are
relevant here. First and foremost, we have found some

346 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of the Swan-maiden tales boldly professing to account for
the worship of totems ; and so thoroughly does totemism
appear to be ingrained in the myth that there is some
reason for thinking that here we have a clue to the
myth's origin and meaning. But the intellect to which
totemism is a credible theory draws no line of demarca-
tion between humanity and the life and consciousness
it recognizes in the whole encircling universe. To it,
accordingly, a story of union between a man and a fish,
a swan or a serpent, involves no difficulty. When
advancing knowledge, and with knowledge repulsion
from such a story, begins to threaten it, another belief
advances to its defence. For nothing is easier to
creatures as clever as the lower animals than a change
of form. They can, whenever they please, assume the
appearance of man or woman : it is as natural to them
as the shape under which they are usually seen. Again,
the life that swarms about the savage philosopher does
not always manifest itself visibly. It is often unseen.
The world is filled with spirits, of whom some have
inhabited human bodies, others have not. To the savage
they are all alike ; for those who have not hitherto
inhabited human bodies may do so at will, or may
inhabit other bodies, either animal or vegetable, and
those who have once done so may do so again.

All these — Totemism, the equality and essential
identity of nature between man and all other objects
in the universe, the doctrine of Transformation, the
doctrine of Spirits — are phases of savage thought, every
one of which has been incorporated in the myth of the
Swan-maidens, and every one of which, except one special
and very limited development of the doctrine of Spirits,
is ignored in Liebrecht's theory. The theory is, indeed,
an admirable illustration of the danger of reasoning
without a sufficiently wide area of induction. Liebrecht's
mistake on the present occasion was twofold : he only
dealt with one or, at most, two types of the myth ; and

CONCLUSION. 347

he ignored the savage variants. Had he taken into
consideration other types — such as Hasan, the Marquis
of the Sun, the Star's Daughter ; — had he been aware
of the savage variants all over the world,he would not have
formed a theory so inconsistent with the facts, and so
little fitted to solve the problems propounded, not merely
by the phenomena of the Swan-maiden group, but by
those of other tales in which supernatural beings intervene.

In reasoning by induction, the greater the number of
facts taken into account, the greater the probability of
sound reasoning ; and therefore the greater the number of
facts a theory will explain, the more likely it is to be true.
Had Liebrecht's theory touched only the Swan-maiden
group, it would have been more convenient to discuss it
in the last chapter. But inasmuch as its truth would
involve much wider issues, it seemed better to reserve it
to be dealt with here. For if the theory be valid for
Melusina, the Lady of the Van Pool, and other water-
nymphs, it is valid also for the " water-woman " who, in
a Transylvanian story, dwelt in a lake in the forest
between Mehburg and Reps. She had two sons, whose
father was a man, and the younger of whom became king
of that land. But when the Saxon immigration took
place the incomers cut down the wood ; the lake dried
up, and as it dried up, the lives of the water-spirit and
her son gradually sank lower and lower, and at last were
extinguished with the extinction of the lake.1 Now I will
venture to say that this story is to be explained satisfac-
torily on no theory yet broached, unless it be the theory
that we have in it a survival of the savage doctrine of
Spirits. Least of all it is to be explained by any adaptation
of what I may call the Ghost theory, — namely, that the
water-spirit and her son were already the spirits of dead
human beings.

Leaving this one example of the value of Liebrecht's
theory, as applied to water-spirits, to stand for all, I turn
1 Miiller, p. 33.

34-8 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

to another order of beings with supernatural powers
referred to several times in the foregoing pages : I mean
Witches. I adduced in Chapter X. a Tirolese tale, a
variant of the Melusina type, wherein the wife was a
witch. It will have been obvious to every reader that
the tale is simply that of Cupid and Psyche with the
parts reversed ; and I might urge that Cupid and the
witch were beings of precisely the same nature. Waiving
this for the moment, however, no one will deny that the
witch takes the place of the Swan-maiden, or fairy, in other
stories of the group. But perhaps it may be suggested
that the name witch (Angana, Hexe) has got into the
story by accident ; and that not a witch in our sense of
the word, but a ghost from the dead, is really meant.
There might be something to be said for this if there
were any substantial distinction to be made between
ghosts and witches and fairies. In the tales and super-
stitions discussed in the present volume we have found
no distinction. Whether it be child-stealing, transforma-
tion, midnight meetings, possession and gift of enchanted
objects, spell-binding, or whatever function, or habit, or
power be predicted of one, it will be found to be common
to the three. I conclude, therefore, that they are all
three of the same nature. This is what a consideration
of the superstitions of savages would lead me to expect.
The belief in fairies, ghosts, and witches is a survival of
those superstitions. It is, of course, not found in equal
coherence, equal strength of all its parts, equal logic (if I
may so express it) everywhere. We must not be sur-
prised if, as it is gradually penetrated by the growing
forces of civilization, it becomes fragmentary, and the
attributes of these various orders of supernatural beings
begin to be differentiated. They are never completely
so ; and the proof of this is that what is at one place, at
one time, or by one people, ascribed to one order, is at
another place, at another time, or by another people,
ascribed to another order. The nature of the classical

COXCLUSION. 349

deities was identical too ; and hence Cupid and the witch
of the Tirolese tale are the masculine and feminine
counterparts of the same conception.

Lastly, a few words must be expended on a totally
different theory lately put forward by Mr. MacRitchie.
This theory is not altogether a new one ; it has been
before the world for many years. But Mr. MacRitchie has,
first in " The Archaeological Review," and since then more
elaborately in a separate book, entitled " The Testimony
of Tradition," worked it out and fortified it with an
array of arguments philological, historical, topographical,
and traditional. He claims to have established that the
fairies of the Celtic and Teutonic races are neither more
nor less than the prehistoric tribes whom they conquered
and drove back, and whose lands they now possess. He
identifies these mysterious beings with the Picts of Scot-
land, the Feinne of the Scottish Highlands and of Ireland,
and the Finns and Lapps of Scandinavia. And he suggests
that the Eskimo, the Ainos, and I know not what other
dwarfish races, are relics of the same people ; while Santa
Klaus, the patron saint of children, is only a tradition of
the wealthy and beneficent character borne by this ill-used
folk. Primarily his arguments are concerned with Scot-
land and Ireland. He builds much on the howes or
barrows, called in Scotland Picts' houses, which in both
countries bear the reputation of being the haunt of fairies
or dwarfs, and some of which seem to have been in fact
dwelling-places. He quotes Dr. Karl Blind to show that
Finns intermarried with the Shetlanders, and that they
were believed to come over in the form of seals, casting
aside their sealskins when they landed. In this connection
he relates how the Finn women were captured by taking
possession of their sealskins, without which they could
not get away from their captors. He also shows that
illimitable riches and magical powers were ascribed to
the Picts and to the Finns, and that the Lapps were
pre-eminent in witchcraft.

35° THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

I shall leave it to Celtic [scholars to deal with Mr.
MacRitchie's remarkable etymologies and with his his-
torical arguments, confining myself to one or two
observations on the traditional aspect of the theory.
Now I should be the last to undervalue any traces of
history to be found in tradition. I have elsewhere drawn
attention to the importance of the study of this element
in folk-tales ; x and I am quite ready to admit that
nothing is more likely than the transfer to the mythical
beings of Celtic superstition of some features derived
from alien races. Savages and barbarians are in the
habit of imputing to strangers and foes in greatly
extended measure the might of witchcraft they claim
for themselves. And the wider the differences between
themselves and the foreigners, the more mysterious to
them are the habits and appearance of the latter, and the
more powerful do they believe them. All this might
account for many details that we are told concerning
the dwarfs, the Picts, the Finns, or by whatever other
names the elvish race may have been known to Scots
and Irishmen. But further than this I cannot go with
Mr. MacRitchie. I hold his error, like that of Liebrecht
already discussed, to be founded on too narrow an induc-
tion. This volume will have been written in vain, as it
appears that for Mr. MacRitchie the vastly more important
works of Dr. Tylor and Mr. Andrew Lang have been
written in vain, unless I have made it clear that the
myths of nations all over the world follow one general
law and display common characteristics. I am not
astonished to find the Shetland tale of marriage with
a seal-woman reproduced on the Gold Coast and among
the Dyaks of Borneo. But Mr. MacRitchie ought to be
very much astonished ; for he can hardly show that the
historical Finns were known in these out-of-the-way
places. It seems to me natural to find that in Scotland
and Ireland fairies dwelt in barrows, and in Annam and
1 "Folklore," vol. i. pp. 113, 116.

CONCLUSION. 351

Arabia in hills and rocks ; and that both in this country
and in the far East they inveigled unhappy mortals into
their dwellings and kept them for generations — nay, for
centuries. That the Shoshone of California should dread
their infants being changed by the Ninumbees, or dwarfs,
in the same way as the Celts of the British Islands, and
the Teutons too, dreaded their infants being changed,
does not seem at all incredible to me. That to eat the
food of the dead in New Zealand prevents a living man
from returning to the land of the living, just as Persephone
was retained in Hades by partaking of the pomegranate,
and just as to eat the food of fairies hinders the Manx or
the Hebrew adventurer from rejoining his friends on the
surface of the earth, is in no way perplexing to me. But
all these things, and they might be multiplied indefinitely,
must be very perplexing to Mr. MacRitchie, if he be not
prepared to prove that Annamites and Arabs, Hebrews
and Shoshone, New Zealanders and classical Greeks alike,
were acquainted with the Picts and the Finns, and alike
celebrated them in their traditions.

The truth Mr. MacRitchie does not reckon with is, that
no theory will explain the nature and origin of the fairy
superstitions which does not also explain the nature and
origin of every other supernatural being worshipped or
dreaded by uncivilized mankind throughout the world.
And until he shall address himself to this task, hoAvever
ingenious his guesses, however amusing his philology,
however delightfully wild his literary and historical
arguments, he will not succeed in convincing any
serious student.

Here then we must pause. Obvious are the differences
between the nations of mankind : differences ot physical
conformation, — that is to say, of race ; divergences of
mental and moral development, — that is to say, of civiliza-
tion. Hitherto the task attempted by folklore has been
to show that underlying all these differences there is a
broad foundation of common agreement ; that distinctions

352 THE SCIENCE OF FAIRY TALES.

of race do not extend to mental and moral constitution ;
that the highest nation on the ladder of culture has
climbed from the same rung on which the lowest are yet
standing ; and that the absurd and incongruous customs
and institutions and the equally absurd and impossible
stories and beliefs found imbedded in the civilization of
the more advanced nations are explicable, and explicable
only, as relics of the phases wherethrough those nations
have passed from the depths of savagery.

If it be admitted in general terms that the evidence
collected and marshalled up to the present time has
established among sure scientific facts so much of the past
of humanity, this achievement is but the beginning of
toil. A wide field has been opened to the student for the
collection and arrangement of details, before the true
meaning of many a strange custom and stranger tale will
be thoroughly understood. I have tried to do something
of the kind in the foregoing pages. But beyond this
there is the more delicate investigation of the ethnic
element in folklore. Can we assign to the various races
their special shares in the development of a common
tradition ? Can we show what direction each race took,
and how and why it modified the general inheritance ?

On the other hand, it is not asserted that the status of
savagery was the primitive condition of men. Of course
it may have been. But if not, there is work to be done
in endeavouring to ascertain what lies behind it. The
questions started from this point wander across the border
of folklore into pure psychology ; but it is a psychology
based not upon introspection and analysis of the mind of
the civilized man, developed under the complex influences
that have been acting and reacting during untold years of
upward struggling, always arduous and often cruel, but a
psychology which must be painfully reconstructed from
the simplest and most archaic phenomena disclosed by
anthropological research. Who can say what light may
not thus be thrown as well on the destiny as on the origin
of mankind ?

APPENDIX.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST OF SOME OF THE WORKS REFERRED TO
IN THE FOREGOING PAGES.

Aberd. Eistedd. See Trans. Aberd. Eistedd.

ALPENBURG. See Von Alpenburg.

AMELINEAU. Contes et Romans del' Egypte Chretienne par E.
Amelineau. 2 vols. Paris, 1888.

Amer. F. L. See Journal Amer. F. L.

Am Urds- Brunnen. Am Urds-Brunnen. Mittheilungen fur Freunde
volksthiimlich-wissenschaftlicher Kunde. 6 vols. [The first two
volumes entitled Am Urdhs-Brunnen, Organ des Vereins fiir
Verbreitung volksthnmlich-ivissenchaftlichcr Kimde^\ Rendsburg,
1881-89.

Antiquary. The Antiquary, a Magazine devoted to the study of the
Past. 22 vols. London, 1880-90, still proceeding.

Archivio. Archivio per lo studio delle Tradizioni Popolari Rivista
Trimestrale diretta da G. Pitre e S. Salomone- Marino. 9 vols.
Palermo, 1882-90, still proceeding.

Arch. Rev. The Archaeological Review. 4 vols. London, 1888-90.

ARNAUDIN. Contes Popidaires recueillis clans la Grande Lande le
Born les Petites-Landes et le Marensin par Felix Arnaudin. Paris,
1887.

AUBREY, Miscellanies. Miscellanies upon various subjects. By John
Aubrey, F.R.S. 4th edition. London, 1857.

Remaines. Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisme. By John

Aubrey, R.S.S. 1686-87. Edited and annotated by James
Britten, F.L.S. London, 1881. (Folk-Lore Society.)

Bahar-Dannsh. Bahar-Danush ; or Garden of Knowledge. An Ori-
ental Romance. Translated from the Persic of Einaint Oollah.
By Jonathan Scott. 3 vols. Shrewsbury, 1799.

BARING-GOULD. Curious Myths of the Middle Ages. By S. Baring-
Gould, M.A. New edition. London, 1869.

BARTSCH. Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche aus Meklenburg. Gesam-

24

354 APPENDIX.

melt uncl herausgegeben von Karl Bartsch. 2 vols. Wien,
1879-80.
BASSET. Contes Populaires Berberes recueillis, traclui-ts et annotes par

Rene Basset. Paris, 1887.
BENT. The Cyclacles, or Life among the Insular Greeks. By J-

Theodore Bent, B.A. London, 1885.

BIRLINGER, Aus Schwaben. Aus Schwaben Sagen, Legenclen, Aber-
glauben, Sitten, Rechtsbrauche, Ortsneckereien, Lieder, Kindcr-
reime Neue Sammlung von Anton Birlinger. 2 vols. Wiesbaden,
1874-

Volksthiimlichcs. Volksthiimliches aus Schwaben. Herausgegeben

von Dr. Anton Birlinger. 2 vols. and Worterbiichlein. Freiburg
im Breisgau, 1861-62.
BLADE. Contes Populaires de la Gascogne par M. Jean-Fra^ois

Blade. 3 vols. Paris, 1886.

Border Minstrelsy. Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border : consisting of
Historical and Romantic Ballads, collected in the Southern
Counties of Scotland. 3rd edition. 3 vols. Edinburgh, 1806.
BOWKER. Goblin Tales of Lancashire. By James Bowker, F.R.G.S.I.

London, N.D.

BRAGA. Ethnographia Portugueza. O Povo Portuguez nos sens
Costumes, Cren9as e Tradi9oes por Theophilo Braga. 2 vols.
Lisboa, 1886.

BRAND. Observations on Popular Antiquities : chiefly illustrating the
origin of our vulgar Customs, Ceremonies, and Superstitions. By
John Brand, M.A., F. and Sec. S.A. Arranged and revised, with
additions by Henry Ellis, F.R.S., Sec. S. A. 2 vols. London, 1813.
BRAUNS. Japanische Marchen und Sagen gesammelt und herausgege-
ben von David Brauns. Leipzig, 1885.
BRAY. See Mrs. Bray.

BRETT. The Indian Tribes of Guiana : their condition and habits.
By the Rev. W. II. Brett. London, 1868.

Legends and Myths. Legends and Myths of the Aboriginal

Indians of British Guiana. Collected and edited by the Rev.
William Henry Brett, B.D. London, N.D.
Brython. See Y Brython.

BURTON, Nights. A plain and literal translation of the Arabian Nights'
Entertainments, now entituled The Book of the Thousand Nights
and a Night, with introduction, explanatory notes, &c. by Richard
F. Burton. 10 vols. Privately printed. 1885.

Suppl. Nights. Supplemental Nights to The Book of the

Thousand Nights and a Night with notes anthropological and
explanatory by Richard F. Burton. 6 vols. Privately printed.
1886-88.

APPENDIX. 355

BUSK, Sagas. Sagas from the Far East ; or Kalmouk and Mongolian
Traditionary Tales. With historical preface and explanatory notes
by the author of Patrailas, &c. [Miss R. H. Busk]. London,

1873-

CAMPBELL. Popular Tales of the West Highlands orally collected
with a translation by J. F. Campbell. 4 vols. Edinburgh,
1860-62.

CAMPBELL, Lord A. See Lord A. Campbell.

CARNOY. Litlerature Orale de la Picardie par E. Henry Carnoy.
Paris, 1883.

CASTREN, Altaischen Volker. M. Alexander Castren's Ethnologische
Vorlesungen liber die Altaischen Volker nebst Samojedischen
Marchen und Tartarischen Heldensagen. Herausgegeben von
Anton Schiefner. St. Petersburg, 1857.

CAVALLIUS. Schwedische Volkssagen und Marchen. Nach miind-
licher Ueberlieferung gesammelt und herausgegeben von Gunnar
Olof Hylten Cavallius und George Stephens. Mit Varianten und
kritischen Anmerkungen. Deutsch von Carl Oberleitner. Wien,
1848.

CERTEUX ET CARNOY. Contributions ait Folk-Lore des Arabes.
L'Algerie Traditionnelle Legendes, Contes, &c., par A. Certeux et
E. Henry Carnoy. First vol. only published. Paris, 1884.

CHAMBERS. Popular Rhymes of Scotland. Robert Chambers. Lon-
don, 1870.

CHILD. The English and Scottish Popular Ballads edited by
Francis James Child. Boston, U.S.A. Privately printed. [The
prospectus is dated 1882. It announced " about 8 parts ": only
six of these (making three volumes) have been issued to date.]

Choice Notes. Choice Notes from " Notes and Queries." Folk Lore.
London, 1859.

COMPARETTI. Novelline Popolari Italiane pubblicate ed illustrate da
Domenico Comparetti. First vol. only published. Roma, 1871;.

Corpzis Poet. Bor. Corpus Poeticum Boreale. The Poetry of the Old
Northern Tongue from the earliest times to the thirteenth century.
Edited by Gudbrand Vigfusson, M.A., and F. York Powell, M.A.
2 vols. Oxford, 1883.

COSQUIN. Emmanuel Cosquin. Contes Populaires de Lorraine com-
pares avec les Contes des autres Provinces de France et des Pays
Etrangers. 2 vols. Paris, N.D.

Count Lucanor. Count Lucanor ; or The Fifty Pleasant Stories of
Patronio. Written by the Prince Don Juan Manuel and first
done into English by James York, M.D., 1868. London, 1888.

CROMEK. Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway Song with Historical
and Traditional Notices relative to the Manners and Customs of

356 APPENDIX.

the Peasantry, now first published by R. H. Cromek, F.A.S. Ed.

London, 1810. Reprint: Paisley, 1880.
CURTIN. Myths and Folk -Lore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin.

London, 1890.

Cyinmrodor. See Y Cyminrodor.
Cymru Fu. " Cymru Fu " ; yn cynwys Hanesion, Traddodiadau, yn

nghyda Chwedlau a Dammegion Cymreig (oddiar lafar gwlad a

gweithiau y prif asvduron). Wrexham, N.D. [Preface dated

October 1862.]
Cymru Fu N. and Q. Cymru Fu : Notes and Queries relating to the

past History of Wales and the Border Countries. 2 vols. Cardiff,

1887-90, still proceeding.
DAVIES, Mythology. The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids

by Edward Davies, author of Celtic Researches. London, 1809.
DAY. Folk-Tales of Bengal by the Rev. Lai Behari Day. London,

1883.
DE GUBERNATIS, NovelHne. Le Novelline di Santo Stefano raccolte

da Angclo De-Gubernatis. Torino, 1869.
Usi Natal. A. De Gubernatis. Storia comparata degli Usi

Natalizi in Italia e presso gli altri popoli Indo-Europei. Milano,

1878.
Zool. Myth. Zoological Mythology or The Legends of Animals

by Angelo De Gubernatis. 2 vols. London, 1872.
DENNYS. The Folk-Loire of China, and its affinities with that of the

Aryan and Semitic Races. By N. B. Dennys, Ph.D., F.R.G.S.

London, 1876.
DES MICHEI.S. Contes Plaisants Annamites traduits en Fran9ais

pour la premiere fois par Abel Des Michels. Paris, 1888.
DORMAN. The Origin of Primitive Superstitions and their Develop-
ment, &c., among the Aborigines of America. By Rushton M.

Dorman. Philadelphia, 1881.
DORSA. La Tradizione Greco-Latina negli usi e nelle credenze

popolari della Calabria citeriore per Yincenzo Dorsa. 2a edizione.

Cozenza, 1884.
Early Trav. Early Travels in Palestine, edited by Thomas Wright

Esq., M.A., F.S.A., &c. London, 1848.
ELLIS. The Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa.

Their religion, manners, customs, laws, language, &c. By A. B.

Ellis. London, 1887.
FARRER. Primitive Manners and Customs. By James A. Farrer.

London, 1879.
F. L. Espan. Folk-Lore Espanol. Biblioteca de las Tradiciones

Populares Espanolas. n vo's. Sevilla, 1883-90, still pro-
ceeding.

APPENDIX. 357

Folk-Lore. Folk-Lore, a quarterly Review of Myth, Tradition,
Institution, and Custom. London, 1890, still proceeding.
[Organ of the Folk-Lore Society.]

F. L. Journal. The Folk-Lore Journal. 7 vols. London, 1883-89.
[Organ of the Folk-Lore Society.]

F. L. Record. The Folk-Lore Record. 5 vols. N.D. [1878-82.
Organ of the Folk-Lore Society.]

FLEURY. Litterature Orale de la Basse-Normandie (Hague et Yal-de-
Saire) par Jean Flcury. Paris, 1883.

GARNETT. The Women of Turkey and their Folklore by Lucy M.
J. Garnett. The Christian Women. London, 1890.

Gent. Mag. Lib. The Gentleman's Magazine Library : being a classi-
fied collection of the chief contents of the Gentleman's Magazine
from 1731 to 1868. Edited by George Lawrence Gomme, F.S.A.
II vols. London, 1883-90, still proceeding. [Vols. not num-
bered, but distinguished by the title of their contents.]

GERV. TILB. Des Gervasius von Tilbury Otia Imperialia. In einer
Auswahl neu herausgegeben und mit Anmerkungen begleitet von
Felix Liebrecht. Hannover, 1856.

Gesta Romanonun. Gesta Romanorum translated from the Latin
by the Rev. Charles Swan, revised and corrected by Wynnard
Hooper, B.A. London, 1877.

GILES. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio. Translated and
annotated by Herbert A. Giles. 2 vols. London, 1 880.

GlLL. Myths and Songs from the South Pacific. By the Rev.
William Wyatt Gill, B.A. London, 1876.

GlRALD. CAMBR. The Itinerary of Archbishop Baldwin through Wales,
translated by Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart., in The Historical
Works of Giraldus Cambrensis, edited by Thomas Wright Esq.,
M.A., F.S.A. London, 1887.

GONZENBACH. Sicilianische Marchen. Aus clem Volksmund gesam-
melt von Laura Gonzeubach. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1870.

GREDT. Sagenschatz des Luxemburger Landes. Gesammelt von Dr.
N. Gredt. Luxemburg, 1885.

GREGOR. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland.
By the Reverend Walter Gregor, M.A. London, 1881. (Folk-
Lore Society.)

GREY. See Sir G. Grey.

GRIMM, Marchen. Kinder- und Haus-Marchen gesammelt durch die

Briider Grimm. I7te Auflage. Berlin, 1880.

— Tales. Grimm's Household Tales. With the author's notes
translated from the German and edited by Margaret Hunt. 2
vols. London, 1884.

Tent. Myth. Teutonic Mythology by Jacob Grimm trans-

35^ APPENDIX.

lated from the fourth edition with notes and appendix by James

Steven Stallybrass. 4 vols. with continuous pagination. London,

1880-88.
GRIXNELL. Pawnee Hero Stones and Folk Tales with notes on the

Origin, Customs, and Character of the Pawnee People by George

Bird Grinnell. New York, 1889.
GROHMANN. Sagen aus Bohmen gesammelt und herausgegeben von

Dr. Josef Virgil Grohmann. Prag, 1883.
GRUNDTVIG. Danische Volksrnarchen von Svend Grundtvig. Uber-

setzt von Willibald Leo. Neue Ausgabe. 2 vols. Leipzig, 1885.
GUBERNATIS. See De Gubernatis.
HAHN. See Von Hahn.
HALTRICH. Deutsche Volksmarchen aus dem Sachsenlande in Sieben-

biirgen. Gesammelt von Josef Haltrich. 4te Auflage. Wien,

1885.
HAPGOOD. The Epic Songs of Russia by Isabel Florence Hapgood.

New York, N.D. [Preface dated August 1885.]

HARLAND and WILKINSON. Lancashire Legends, Traditions, Page-
ants, Sports, &c. By John Harland, F.S.A., and T. T. Wilkinson,

F.R.A.S. London, 1873.

HAZLITT, Fairy T'ales. Fairy Tales, Legends and Romances illus-
trating Shakespeare and other Early English writers to which are

prefixed two preliminary dissertations by Joseph Ritson. [Edited

by W. C. Hazlitt.] London, 1875.
HENDERSON. Notes on the Folk-Lore of the Northern Counties of

England and the Borders. New Edition. By William Henderson.

London, 1879. (Folk-Lore Society.)
HOYVELLS. • Cambrian Superstitions, comprising Ghosts, Omens,

Witchcraft, Traditions, &c. By W. Howells. Tipton, 1831.
HUNT. Popular Romances of the West of England or the Drolls,

Traditions and Superstitions of Old Cornwall collected and

edited by Robert Hunt, F.R.S. 3rd edition, revised and enlarged.

London, 1881.
IMBRIAXI. La Novellaja Fiorentina fiabe e novelline stenografate in

Firenze dal dettato popolare da Vittorio Imbriani. Ristampa

accresciute di molte novelle inedite, &c., nelle quali e accolta La

Novellaja Milanese dello stesso raccoglitore. Livorno, 1877.
IM THURN. Among the Indians of Guiana being sketches chiefly

anthropologic from the interior of British Guiana. By Everard F.

im Thurn, M.A. London, 1883.
Indian N. and Q. Indian Notes and Queries (late " Panjab Notes and

Queries"), a Monthly Periodical conducted by Captain R. C.

Temple and others. 7 vols. Allahabad, 1883-90, still pro-
ceeding.

APPENDIX. 359

Irish Folk Lore, or Irish F. L. Irish Folk Lore : Traditions and

Superstitions of the Country ; with humorous tales. By

" Lageniensis." Glasgow, N.I). [Preface dated April 1870.]
JAHN. Volkssagen aus Pommern und Riigen. Gesammelt und

herausgegeben von Dr. Ulrich Jahn. Stettin, 1886.
JANNSEN. Marchen und Sagen des estnischen Volkes gesammelt mid

iibersetzt von Harry Jannsen. Two series. 1st ser. Dorpat, 1881 :

2nd ser. Riga, 1888.
JONES and KROI-K The Folk-Tales of the Magyars. Collected by

Kriza, Erdelyi, Pap and others. Translated and edited by the

Rev. W. Henry Jones and Lewis L. Kropf. London, 1889.

(Folk -Lore Society.)
Tournal. Ainer. F. L. The Journal of American Folk-Lore. 3 vols.

Boston, 1888-90, still proceeding. [Organ of the American Folk-
Lore Society.]
Kakwala. Kalewala, des National-Epos cler Finnen, nach der zweiten

Ausgabe ins Deutsche iibertragen von Anton Schiefner. Helsing-

fors, 1852.
Kathd Sarit Sagara. The Katha Sarit Sagara, or Ocean of the Streams

of Story translated from the original Sanskrit by C. H. Tawney,

M.A. 2 vols. Calcutta, 1880-84.
KEIGHTLEY. The Fairy Mythology, illustrative of the Romance and

Superstition of various Countries by Thomas Keightley. New

Edition, revised and greatly enlarged. London, 1882.
KENNEDY. Legendary Fictions of the Irish' Celts. Collected and

narrated by Patrick Kennedy. London, 1866.
KlRBY. The New Arabian Nights. Select Tales, not included by

Galland or Lane. Translated and edited by W. F. Kirby.

London, N.D.
KNOOP. Volkssagen, Erzahlungen, Aberglauben, Gebrauche und

Marchen aus clem -ostlichen Hinterpommern. Gesammelt von

Otto Knoop. Pcsen, 1885.
KNOWLES. Folk-Tales of Kashmir. By the Rev. J. Hinton Knowles.

London, 1888.
KKAUSS. Sagen und Miirchen der Siidslaven. Zum grossen Teil aus

ungedrucklen Quellen von Dr. Friedrich S. Krauss. 2 vols.

Leipzig, 1883-84.
Volksgl. Volksglaube und religioser Branch der Siidslaven.

Vorwiegend nach eigenen Ermittlungen von Dr. Friedrich S.

Krauss. Miinster i W. 1890.
KREUTZWALD. Ehstnische Marchen. Aufgezeichnet von Friedrich

Kreutzwald. Aus clem Ehstnischen iibersetzt von F. Lowe.

Halle, 1869.
KUHN. Miirkische Sagen und Marchen nebst einem Anhange von

360 APPENDIX.

Gebraucheu und Aberglauben gesammelt und herausgegeben von

Adalbert Kuhn. Berlin, 1843.
KUHN UND SCHWARTZ. Norddeutsche Sagen, Marchen und Gebrauche

aus Meklenburg, &c. Aus dem munde des Volkes gesammelt und

herausgegeben von A. Kuhn und W. Schwartz. Leipzig, 1848.
LADY WILDE. Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of

Ireland. By Lady Wilde. 2 vols. London, 1887.
LA CROIX. Manners Customs and Dress during the Middle Ages and

during the Renaissance Period by Paul La Croix (Bibliophile

Jacob). 4th thousand. London, 1876.
LANDES. Contes et Legendes Annamites par A. Landcs. Saigon,

1886.
La Tradition. La Tradition Revue Generale des Contes, Legendes,

Chants, Usages, Traditions et Arts populaires. 4 vols. Paris,

1887-90, still proceeding. [Organ of the Societe des Tradition-

nistes.]
LELAND. The Algonquin Legends of New England, or Myths and

Folk-Lore of the Micmac, Passamaquoddy, and Penobscot Tribes

by Charles G. Leland. London, 1884.
LEMKE. Volksthtimliches in Ostpreussen von E. Lemke. 2 vols.

Mohrungen, 1884-87.
LIEBRECHT. Zur Volkskunde. Alte und neue Aufsatze von Felix

Liebrecht. Heilbronn, 1879.
Llyvyr Cock. See Y Llyvyr Coch.
LORD A. CAMPBELL, Waifs and Strays. Waifs and Strays of Celtic

Tradition. I. Argyllshire Series. Edited by Lord Archibald

Campbell. London, 1879.
LUZEL, Contes. Contes Populaires de Basse-Bretagne par V. M.

Luzel. 3 vols. Paris, 1887.
Legendes Chret. Legendes Chretiennes de la Basse-Bretagne par

F. M. Luzel. 2 vols. Paris, 1881.

— Veillees. Veillees Bretonnes par F.-M. Luzel. Morlaix, 1879.
MAclNNES. Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition. Folk and Hero

Tales. Collected, Edited and Translated by the Rev. D. Mac

Innes, With Notes by the Editor and Alfred Nutt. London,

1890.
MACRITCHIE. The Testimony of Tradition by David MacRitchie.

London, 1890.
MALORY. La Mort d' Arthure. The History of King Arthur and of

the Knights of the Round Table. Compiled by Sir Thomas

Malory, Knt. Edited from the text of the edition of 1634 by

Thomas Wright Esq., M.A., F.S.A. 2nd edition. 3 vols.

London, 1866.
MAP. Gualteri Mapes De Nugis Curialium Distinctiones Quinque.

APPENDIX. 361

Edited from the unique manuscript in the Bodleian Library at

Oxford by Thomas Wright Esq., M.A., F.S.A., &c. London,

1850*
Masnavi i Ma'navi. Masnavi i Ma'navi. The Spiritual Couplets of

Maulana Jalalu-'d-Din Muhammad i Rumi. Translated and

abridged by E. H. Whinfield, M.A. London, 1887.
MASPONS Y LABROS. Folk-Lore Catala. Cuentos Populars Catalans

per lo Dr. Erancisco de S. Maspons y Labros. Barcelona, 1885.
MEIER. Deutsche Sagen, Sitten uncl Gebrauche aus Schwaben,

gesammelt von Ernst Meier. Stuttgart, 1852.
Miirchcn. Deutsche Volksmarchen aus Schwaben. Aus clem

Muncle des Volks gesammelt uncl herausgegeben von Dr. P^rnst

Meier. 3te Auflage. Stuttgart, N.D.
JMclusine. Melusine Recueil de Mythologie, Litterature Populaire,

Traditions et Usages public par H. Gaitloz et E. Rolland. [Since

vol. iii. by H. Gaidoz alone.] 5 vols. Paris, 1878-90, still

proceeding.

MICHELS. See Des Michels.
MRS. BRAY. The Borders of the Tamar and the Tavy ; their Natural

History, &c., by Mrs. Bray. New Edition. 2 vols. London, 1879.
MiJLLER. Siebenbtirgische Sagen gesammelt und herausgegeben von

Dr. Friedrich Miiller. Zweite veranderte Auflage. Wien, 1885.
NAPIER. Folk Lore : or Superstitious Beliefs in the West of Scot-
land within this Century. By James Napier, F.R.S.E., F.C.S.,

&c. Paisley, 1879.
NICHOLSON. Folk Lore of East Yorkshire. By John Nicholson.

London, 1890.

NIEDERHOFFER. Mecklenburg's Volkssagen. Gesammelt und heraus-
gegeben von M. Dr. A. Niederhofier. 4 vols. Leipzig, N.D.

[Vorwort dated Februar 1857.]
OKTOLI. Les Contes Pdpulaires del' He de Corse par J. B. Frederic

Ortoli. Paris, 1883.

Panjab N. and Q. See Indian N. and Q.
PITRE. Biblioteca delle Tradizioni Popolari Siciliane per cura di

Giuseppe Pitre. 18 vols. Palermo, 1871-88.
POESTION. Lapplandische Marchen, Volkssagen, Rathsel und Sprich-

worter. Nach lapplandischen, norwegischen und schwedischen

Quellen von J. C. Poestion. Wien, 1886.
POWELL AND MAGNUSSON. Icelandic Legends (collected by Jon

Arnason) Translated by George E. J. Powell and Eirikr Mag-

nusson. 2nd series. London, 1866.
PRELLER, Rom. Myth. Romische Mythologie von L. Preller. 3te

Auflage. 2 vols. Berlin, 1881-83.
PRYM UND SOCIN. Kurdische Sammlungen. Erzahlungen und Lieder

362 APPENDIX.

im dialekte des Tur 'Abdin. Gesammelt, herausgegeben und
iibersetzt von Eugen Prym und Albert Socin. St. Petersbourg,

1887- [A second part, by Socin only, consisting of tales and songs
in the dialect of Bohtan, has since been published, 1890.]
RADLOFF. Proben der Volkslitteratur der Tilrkischen Stamine Sud-

Sibiriens, gesammelt und iibersetzt von Dr. W. Radloff. 6 vols.

[the last two entitled P. der V. der Nordlichen Tiirkischen

Stamme.] St. Petersburg, 1866-86.
RALSTON, A'. F. Talcs. Russian Folk-Tales by W. R. S. Ralston,

M.A. London, 1873.
Tibetan Tales. Tibetan Tales derived from Indian Sources.

Translated from the Tibetan of the Kah-Gyur by F. Anton von

Schiefner. Done into English from the German by W. R. S.

Ralston, M.A. London, 1882.
RAPPOLD. Sagen aus Karnten. Zusammengestellt und theilweise

neu erzahlt von Professor J. Rappold. Augsburg, 1887.
Revue iles Trad. Pop. Revue des Traditions Populaires. 5 vols.

Paris, 1886-90, still proceeding. [Organ of the Societe des

Traditions Populaires.]
RHYS, Hibbert Lecttircs. The Hibbert Lectures, 1886. Lectures on

the Origin and Growth of Religion as illustrated by Celtic

Heathendom. By John Rhys. London, 1888.
RINK. Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo by Dr. Henry Rink.

Translated from the Danish by the author. Edited by Dr. Robert

Brown. Edinburgh, 1875.
ROBERTSON SMITH. Lectures 'on the Religion of the Semites. First

Series. The Fundamental Institutions. By W. Robertson Smith,

M.A., LL.D. Edinburgh, 1889.
ROMERO. Contos Populares do Brazil collegidos pelo Dr. Sylvio

Romero. Lisboa, 1885.

ROMILLY. From my Verandah in New Guinea Sketches and Tradi-
tions by Hugh Hastings Romilly, C.M.G. London, 1889.
Rosenol. Rosenol oder Sagen und Kunden des Morgenlancles aus

arabischen, persischen und tiirkischen Quellen gesammelt. 2 vols.

Stuttgart, 1813.
RUDDER. A New History of Gloucestershire. Cirencester, Samuel

' Rudder, 1779.
SASTRI. The Dravidian Nights Entertainments: being a translation

of Madanakamarajankadai. By Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri.

Madras, 1886.
SAXO, G<:sta Dan. Saxonis Grammatici Gesta Danorum, herausgegeben

von Alfred Holder. Strassburg, 1886.
SCHLEICHER. Litaiiische Marchen, Sprichworte, Ratsel und Lieder.

Gesammelt und iibersetzt von August Schleicher. Weimar, 1857.

APPENDIX. 363

SCHMIDT. Griechische Marchen, Sagen und Volkslieder gesammelt,

iibersetzt und erlautert von Bernhardt Schmidt. Leipzig, 1877.
SCHNELLER. Marchen und Sagen aus Walschtirol. Gesammelt von

Christian Schneller. Innsbruck, 1867.
SCHRECK. Finnische Marchen iibersetzt von Emmy Sell reck. Weimar,

1887.
SEBILLOT, Contes. Paul Sebillot. Contes Populaires de la Haute

Bretagne. Paris, 1880. Do. 2me serie. Contes des Paysans et

des Pecheurs. Paris, 1881. Do. 3me serie. Contes des Marins.

Paris, 1882.
Lift. Orale. Litterature Orale de la Haute Bretagne par Paul

Sebillot. Paris, 1881.
Trad, et Super. Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne

par Paul Sebillot. 2 vols. Paris, 1882.
SHORTLAND. Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders: with

illustrations of their manners and customs. By Edward Shortland,

M.A. 2nd edition. London, 1856.
SIKES. British Goblins : Welsh Folk-Lore, Fairy Mythology,

Legends and Traditions. By Wirt Sikes. London, 1 880.
SIMROCK. Handbuch der Deutschen Mythologie mit Einschluss der

nordischen. Von Karl Simrock. 3te Auflage. Bonn, 1869.
SIR G. GREY. Polynesian Mythology, and Ancient Traditional

History of the New Zealand Race, as furnished by their Priests

and Chiefs. By Sir George Grey. London, 1855.
SPITTA BEY. Contes Arabes Modernes recueillis et traduits par

Guillaume Spitta-Bey. Leide, 1883.
STEERE. Swahili Tales, as told by natives of Zanzibar. With an

English translation. By Edward Steere, LL.D. London, 1870.
STEPHENS. The Literature of the Kymry : being a critical essay on

the history of the Language and Literature of Wales during the

twelfth and two .succeeding centuries. By Thomas Stephens.

2nd edition. London, 1876.
STERN BERG. The Dialect and Folk-Lore of Northamptonshire. By

Thomas Sternberg. London, 1851.
TAYLOR. TeJkaaMaui; or New Zealand and its Inhabitants. By

the Rev. Richard Taylor, M.A., F.G.S. 2nd edition. London, 1870.
TEMPLE, Legends of t/ie Punjab. The Legends of the Panjab. By

Captain R. C. Temple. 2 vols. Bombay, N.D. [Preface to vol.

i. dated May 1884.] Still proceeding.
TETTAU. See Von Tettau.
THEAL. Kaffir Folk-Lore ; a Selection from the Traditional Tales

current amongst the people living on the eastern border of the

Cape Colony. By George M'Call Theal. London, N.D. [Preface

dated Jan. 1882.]

364 APPENDIX.

THOMAS OF ERCELDOUNE. The Romance and Prophecies of Thomas
of Erceldoune, printed from five manuscripts. Edited, with intro-
duction and notes, by James A. H. Murray, LL.D. London
1875 (Early Eng. Text Soc.).

THORBURN. Bannii ; or, Our Afghan Frontier. By S. S. Thorburn.
London, 1876.

THORPE. Northern Mythology, comprising the principal popular
traditions and superstitions of Scandinavia, North Germany, and
the Netherlands. Compiled by Benjamin Thorpe. 3 vols. London,
1851-52.

Yule-Tide Stories. Yule-Tide Stories. A collection of Scandi-
navian and North German Popular Tales and Traditions. Edited
by Benjamin Thorpe. London, 1853.

Tradition. See La Tradition.

Trad. Pop. Revile des. See Revue des Trad. Pop.

TRAIN. An Historical and Statistical Account of the Isle of Man,
from the earliest times to the present date. By Joseph Train,
F.S.A. Scot. 2 vols. Douglas, 1845.

Trans. Aberd. Eistedd. Eistcdfodd Genedlaethol y Cymry. Cofno-
dion a Chyfansoddiadau Buddugol Eisteddfod Aberdar, 1885.
Transactions of the National Eisteddfod of Wales, Aberdare,
1885. Caerdydd, 1887.

TYLOR. Primitive Culture : Researches into the development of
Mythology, Philosophy, Religion, Art, and Custom. By Edward
B. Tylor. 2 vols. London, 1871.

VERNALEKEN. In the Land of Marvels. Folk-Tales from Austria
and Bohemia by Theodor Vernaleken. London, 1889.

Volkskunde. See Zeits.f. Volkskunde.

VON ALPENBURG. Mythen und Sagen Tirols. Gesammelt und heraus-
gegeben von Johann Nepomuk Ritter von Alpenburg. Zurich,

1857-
VON HAHN. Griechische und albanesiche Marchen. Gesammelt

iibersetzt uncl erlautert von J. G. von Ilahn. 2 vols. Leipzig,

1864.
VON TETTAU. Die Volkssagen Ostpreussens, Litthauens und

Westpreussens. Gesammelt von W. J. A. von Tettau und J.

D. H. Temme. Berlin, 1837.
VON WLISLOCKI. Marchen und Sagen der Transsilvanischen Zigeuner

Gesammelt und iibersetzt von Dr. Heinrich von Wlislocki.

Berlin, 1 886.
WALDAU. Bohmisches Marchenbuch. Deutsch von Alfred Waldau.

Prag, 1860.
WALDRON. A Description ot the Isle of Man by George Waldron,

Gent. Edited by William Harrison, Esq. Douglas, 1865.

APPENDIX. 365

WEBSTER. Basque Legends : collected chiefly in the Labourd by

Rev. Wentworth Webster, M. A. 2nd edition. London, 1879.
WENZIG. Westslawischer Marchenschatz. Deutsch bearbeitet von

Joseph Wenzig. Neue Ausgabe. Leipzig, 1886.
WHITE. The Ancient History of the Maori, his Mythology and

Traditions by John White. 4 vols. Wellington, 1887-89, still

proceeding.
Wide Awake Stones. Wide Awake Stories. A collection of tales

told by little children, between sunset and sunrise, in the Panjab

and Kashmir. By F. A. Steel and R. C. Temple. Bombay,

1884.

WILDE. See Lady Wilde.
WIRT SIKES. See Sikes.
WLISLOCKI. See Von Wlislocki.
WRATISLAW. Sixty Folk-Tales from exclusively Slavonic sources.

Translated, with brief introductions and notes, by A. H. Wratis-

law, M.A. London, 1889.
WRIGHT, Middle Ages. Essays on subjects connected with the

Literature, Popular Superstitions and History of England in the

Middle Ages. By Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S. A. 2 vols. London,

1846.
Y Brython. Y Brython : Cylchgrawn Llenyddol Cymru ; dan olygiad

y Parch. D. Silvan Evans. 5 vols. Tremadog, 1858-63.
Y Cynnnrodor. Y Cymmrodor, embodying the Transactions of the

Cymmrodorion Society of London. 10 vols. London, 1877-90,

still proceeding.
Y Llyvyr Coch. Y Llyvyr Coch o Hergest. Y gyvrol I. The Text of

the Mabinogion and other Welsh Tales from the Red Book of

Hergest edited by John Rhys, M.A. and J. Gwenogfryn Evans.

Oxford, 1887.

The Mabinogion, from the Welsh of the Llyfr Coch o Hergest

(The Red Book of Hergest) in the Library of Jesus College, Oxford.

Translated, with notes, by Lady Charlotte Guest. London, 1877.
Zeits.f. Volksk. Zeitschrift fiir Volkskunde in Sage und Mar, Schwank

und Streich, Lied, Ratsel und Sprichwort, Sitte und Branch

herausgegeben von Dr. Edmund Veckenstedt. 2 vols. Leipzig,

1889-90, still proceeding.

INDEX.

Actreon, 71

Afghan legend, 183

Alsatian tales, 213, 216

American Indians, Tales of North,

268, 271, 314, 315
Ananci tale, 294
Animism, 25
Annamite tales, 200, 323
Arabian Nights Entertainments, 50,

69, 79, 84, 255, 260, 267
Arab tales (see Arabian Nights

Entertainments), 202, 300, 316,

319

Ardshi-Bordshi, 81
Arthur, King, 205, 207, 21 1, 212,

234

Art of Story-telling, I, 5, 20, In
Western Highlands, 5 ; Brittany,
7 ; Portugal, Brazil-, Gascony,
Wales, England, 8 ; France,
Sicily, 9 ; Panjab, II ; Cash-
mere, New Zealand, Polynesia,
Greenland, 12 ; among the Mala-
gasy, Ahts, Indian tribes of
Guiana, 13 ; in India, 14 ; among
the Algonkins, ancient Germans,
Anglo-Saxons, ancient Welsh, 15 ;
Arabs, Guslars, 16; Swahilis, 17 ;
Eskimo, 12, 19.

Ascension Day, 90

Aubrey, John, 148, 244

Bahar Danush, 260

Ballafletcher, Cup of, 156

Bantik. See Celebes

Bards, Welsh, 15

Baptism, superstitions concerning,

94, 101
Barrows, haunted, 141, 142, 146,

231

Basque tale, 293
Berchta, Dame, 70, 90
Blanik mountain, 184, 219, 220
Blood relationship among savages,

47
Bohemian tales, 56, 119, 175, 184,

219, 245, 251, 260, 294
Bona Dea, 84, 87
Bornoese tales, 300, 311, 324
Breton tales, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66, 67,

116, 138, 174, 190, 192, 293
Briar Rose, 247
Buddhist influence on tales, 295, et

seqq.

Bulgarian tales. See Slavonic
Burmese tale, 267, 297
| Burton, Sir Richard F. (see Arabian

Nights Entertainments), 16

! Cabalists, the, a medieval sect, 341

Carinthian tales, 173, 240
I Cashmere, tales from. See Indian
; Celebes Islands, tale from, 267, 297

Changelings, 93, et seqq.

Chinese superstitions, 97, 98

Chinese tales, 177, 178, 299, 300

368

INDEX.

Christening. See Baptism

Christmas, 141, 142, 157, 159

Coals turned to gold, 49

Cologne, Three Kings of, 149, 150

Coptic tale, 181

Corpus Christi Day, 89

Corsican tale, 274

Cosquin, Emmanuel, 267, 297

Coventry. See Godiva

Cretan tales. See Greek

Cyclades, tale from. See Greek

Danish superstitions, 96, 99, 231
Danish tales, 40,44, 50, 56, 67, 103,

114, 130, 131, 140, 141, 144, 151,

185, 213, 294
Dardistan, tale from, 49
Davies, Rev. Edward, 136
Dean, Forest of. See Forest
Death, savage belief on, 27
Derceto, a Phoenician goddess, 324
Devil, the, 42, 47, 69, 263, 280
Diana, 71
Diedrich, 213, 233
Dobocz, the robber chief, 218, 233
Dracs of the Rhone, 65, 100
Duffus, story of Lord, 148
Dyak. See Bornoese

Edenhall. See Luck
Edgehill, Battle of, 235
Edric the Wild, 302, 338, 340
Eggshells, changelings detected by,

153, ft seqq., 125
Elidorus, tale of, 135
English superstitions, 96, ico, 205
English tales, 59, 61, 63, 64, 66, 68,

69, 106, 116, 124, 126, 139, 145,

146, 147, 178, 189, 211, 234, 244
Epimenides, tale of, 183
Eskimo tales, 137, 262
Esthonian tales, 201, 273, 280
Etiquette of various nations, 309,

321
Ezra, 182

Fairy Births and Human Midwives,

37, et seqq., 59, et seqq.
Fairyland, 43, 47, 161, 196, 222
Fairy Tales, definition of, 3 ;

divisions of, 22 ; principles of

explanation of, 32
Feather- robe, 258, 267, 268, 298,

300, 301
Females, kinship through. See

Kinship

Finnish tales, 259, 329
Fire, superstitions respecting, 96, 97
Forest of Dean, 78
Folktale (set: Art of Story-telling),

connection with folksong, 14 ;

how to be reported, 21
Frazer, J. G., 31, 249, 252
Frederick Barbarossa, 172, 213
French superstitions, 96
French tales (see Breton), 42, 47,

65, 114, 119, 272, 293, 324, 342
Frog, Fairy as. See Toad.

Gaelic tales. See Scottish

Gerald, Earl, 210, 233

German superstitions, 95, 96, 99,
108, 140, 143, 279, 281

German tales (see Alsatian, Pome-
ranian, Riigen, Swabian, Tran-
sylvanian), 48, 103, 113, 114, II 8,
124, 126, 130, 137, 138, 139, 140,
142, 143, 149, 152, 172, 177, 185,
188, 192, 212, 214, 215, 216, 217,
238, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 259,
281, 327

Gervase of Tilbury, 65, ico, 145.
212, 234, 272, 284

Giraldus Cambrensis, 135

Gloucestershire (see Forest of Dean,
St. Briavels), 145

Godiva, legend of Lady, 71, et seqq.

Gold Coast, custom at, 86

Gold Coast, tales of, 313, 324

Gold, fairy, turns to dross, 5°

INDEX.

369

Grateful animals. See Buddhist
Gratitude, fairy, 48, 218, 312, 316
Greek superstitions, 99, 100
Greek tales, 55, 82, 242, 267, 269,

290, 317

Grey, Sir George, 12, 285
Grimm, 120, 140,212,213, 216, 233
Guiana, tales from, 261, 289, 297,

299, 324
Guernsey, tales from, 62, 66, 1 14

Hades, food of, must not be eaten,

43, 44, 45- 47
Harold II., King, 72, 205
Hasan of Bassorah, tale of, 255, 291,
Hebrew tale, 41, 55
Helpful beasts. See Buddhist
Herla, King, tale of, 178, 234
Hero, the Hidden, the Sleeping,

205, et seqq., 228, 235
Hertha, a German goddess, 71, 89,

90

Hindoo customs, tales. See Indian
Highland tales. See Scottish
Holle, Dame, 215, 236

Icelandic tales, 113, 193
Imagination among savages, 2, 33
Im Thurn, Everard, 13, 230
Indian customs, 84
Indian tales, 82, 227, 268, 296, 317,

3i8, 338

lolo Morganwg, 207
Irish superstitions, 96, 121, 123, 210,

211

Irish tales, 50,52, 63, 107, 116, 118,

122, 128, 196, 198, 202, 2IO, 211,

259, 314, 324, 338

Iron, dislike of supernatural beings
to, 50, 97, 126, 164, 306

Irving, Washington, 177, 181

Italian superstitions, 99

Italian tales (see Corsican, Sicilian,
Tirolese), 199, 293

Japanese tales, 174, 178, 194, 273,

301

Jewish tales. See Hebrew
Jeremiah the prophet, 181

Kaffir tale, 328

Kan Piidai, 42

Katha-sarit-sagara, 318

Keats, 313

Kinship through females, 228, et

seqq.

Kirk Malew, Cup of, 155
Koran. See Mohammed
Kurdish tale, 262, 292
Kurroglu, the robber-poet, 80
Kyfifhauser, 172, 214, 215, 229

Lady Wilde. See Wilde
Lapp superstitions, 108
Lapp tales, 38, 57, 173, 329
Liebrechl, Felix, 79, ; his Ghost

Theory, 337

Lithuanian superstitions, 96
Lithuanian tales, 104, 120, 220, 221
Li Ki, a Chinese classic, 321
Loo Choo Islands, tale from, 318
Longfellow, 187
Luck of Edenhall, 153
Luther on Changelings, 109, 124
Luxemburg, 240, 253, 324
Luzel, F. M., 7, 190

Mabinogion, 188

MacRitchie, David, his Fmn Theory,

349, et seqq.
Mahabharata, 317
Magyar tale, 260
Malagasy tale, 287
Malory, Sir Thomas, 205
Manx superstitions, 108, 2IO
Manx tales, 41, 106, 117, 155
Maori customs, 290
Maori tales, 45, 274, 285, 288, 289,

317,319

2=;

37°

INDEX.

Map, Walter, 178, 234, 302, 338,

240, 341

Marko, Prince, or King, tale of, 218
Marquis of the Sun, tale of, 264,

291, 293
Marriage settlements, Indian, 321,

322

Mauncleville, Sir John, in, 239
Mecklygon Myddfai, 325
Melusina, 240, 253, 272, 273, 321,

324. 327

Merlin, 209

Messia, the Sicilian story-teller, 9

Metamorphosis, 26, 31

Midsummer Day. See St. John's
Day

Midwives, adventures of. See Fairy-
Births

Minstrel in Middle Ages, 15

Mohammed, 182, 224

Mohel, adventure of a, 41, 55

Moravian tale, 274

Morgan the Fay, 43, 204

Morris, William, 239, 260, 261

Mother-right. See Kinship

Myddfai, Physicians of. See Meddy-
gon

Names, Savage feeling about, 309

Napoleon I., 206

Nereids, 55, 99, 242, 267, 317, 325

Netherlands, tale from, 188

New Guinea, tale from, 322

New Year's Eve and Night, 69, 248

New Zealand. See Maori

Nightmare, the, 278, ct seqq.

Norwegian tales. See Scandinavian

Odin. See Woden

Ogier the Dane. See Olger

Ointment, Magical, 59, et seqq.

Oisin, 196, 198

Oldenburg Horn, 149

Olger the Dane, 43, 204, 213

Omens, 30

Osburg, foundress of nunnery at

Coventry, 90
Ossian. See Oisin
Ovid, 71

Owen Glendower, 209
Owen Lawgoch, 209

Parsees. See Sad Dar

Peeping Tom. See Godiva

Peleus. See Thetis

Perrault, 247

Pitre, Dr., 9, 53, 192

Pliny, 86, 183

Pomeranian tales, 48, 51, 141, 217,

237, 242, 243, 251, 262, 281
Polynesian tales, 44, 45, 267, 319,

324

Portuguese superstition, 206
Portuguese tale, 181
Princess, the Enchanted, 237 el

seqq., 262
Proserpine, 43, 48

Revenge, Fairy, 52, 59, ct seqq., 65,

et seqq.
Rhys, Professor, 37, 64, 66, no,

163, 164, 188, 231, 325, 330
Rip van Winkle, 177
Robberies from Fairyland, 135, et

seqq.

Roger of Wendover. See Godiva
Roman superstition, 96
Russian tales, 119, 259, 265, 294,

298, 344
Riigen, Island of, tales from, 71, 89,

127, 152, 236

Sad Dar, a sacred book of Parsees,

96

Samoyede tale, 268
Savage ideas, 22 ; evidence of, 32
Savages, imagination among, 2
Saxo Grammaticus, 44
Scandinavian tales (see Icelandic,

INDEX.

371

Danish), 38, 115, 142, 150, 155,
217, 258, 281, 294, 318
Scottish superstitions, 94, 95, 96,127,

133

Scottish tales, 55, 61, 98, 105, in,

112, Il8, I2O, 121, 122, 125, 127,

130, 131, 132, 144, 148, 165, 166,
167, 180, 1 8-5, 241, 266, 293, 312
Sebastian, Don, 206
Sebillot, Paul, 67
Seven Sleepers, the, 182
Siberian tales, 42, 169
Sicilian superstitions, 100, in
Sicilian tales, 53, 192, 212, 299
Siegfried, or Sigurd, 212, 247
Sikes, Wirt, 64, 123, 137, 165, 278
Simrock, Karl, 101, lib
Slavonic superstitions, 206, 279
Slavonic tales (see Bohemian, Rus-
sian, Lithuanian), 218, 266, 267,
298, 312

Southam, procession at, 85
Southey, 187

Spanish superstitions, 100, 205
Spanish tales, 187, 226, 264, 294,

SIS- 325, 339
Spirits, doctrine of, 25, 42
St. Augustine, 100, 235
St. Briavels, custom at, 78, 87
Stephens, Professor Dr. Geo., 150
St. John's Day, 214, 236, 238; 248
Story-telling, Art of. See Art
Stoymir, the Knight, 220, 233
Swabian tales, 39, 52, 147, 244, 245,

253
Swan-maidens, 202, 255, et seqq.,

283, et seqq., 337
Swedish tales. See Scandinavian
Swiss tale, 49

Taboo, 270, 302, 304, 305, 306,

309, 311,312, 318, 320, 337
Tacitus, 15, 71, 89
Tarn Lin, ballad of, 242

Tawhaki and Tango-tango, tale of,

285, et seqq.
Thetis, 242, 317, 329
Thomas of Erceldoune, 43, 102, 103
Time, supernatural lapse of, 161, el

scqq., 196, et scqq., 222, et seqq.
Tini-rau, tale of, 286, et seqq.
Tir na n 'Og. See Oisin
Tirolese tales, 70, 184, 274, 293, 315,

325. 329. 348
Toad or frog, fairy as (see Princess),

5i- 52, 53- 338

: Totemism, 27, 324, 331, 346
I Tradition, definition of, 34

Traditions, variable value of, 4, 24
"" Transformations, doctrine of, 26, 31
1 Transylvanian tales, 52, 176, 189,
246, 258, 347

! Ulrich von Rosenberg, 220, 233

Van Pool, Lady of the, 274, 325, 330
Vikramaclitya, 8l
Vitra, 38

Wainamoinen, 45
Waldron, Geo., 41, 108, 156
Wastin of Wastiniog, tale of, 302
Welsh superstitions, no, 126, 207,

209

Welsh tales, 37, 62, 63, 103, 113,
115, 122, 123, 126, 128, 135,136,
162, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168,
187, 188, 207, 209, 225, 269,274,
294, 301, 302, 304, 305, 317, 325,

327. 330

Wenzel, King, 184, 219
Western Highlands, story-telling in,

5

Weyland Smith, 318
Wilde, Lady, 102, 128
Wild Edric. See Edric
Wild Hunt, the, 233,234, 236
William of Newbury, 146
Witchcraft, 29

372

INDEX.

Witches, 99, 143, 173, 336, 348 York, custom at, 90

Woden, 212, 233, 247, 339 Yorkshire, 189, 211

Yatsh, or demon, \yedding, 49 Zoroaster, 96

UXWIN BROTHhRS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, CHII.WORTH AX1) LONDON.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY.

Cloth, Uncut Edges, Gilt Top. Price is. 6d. per Volume.

VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED—

1 MALORY'S ROMANCE OF KING ARTHUR AND THE

Quest of the Holy GraiL Edited by Ernest Ehys.

2 THOREAU'S WALDEN. WITH INTRODUCTORY NOTE

by Will H. Dircks.

3 THOREAU'S "WEEK." WITH PREFATORY NOTE BY

Will H. Dircks.

4 THOREAU'S ESSAYS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRO-

duction, by Will H. Dircks.

5 CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER, ETC

By Thomas De Quincey. With Introductory Note by William Sharp.

6 LANDOR'S IMAGINARY CONVERSATIONS. SELECTED,

with Introduction, by Havelock Ellis.

7 PLUTARCH'S LIVES (LANGHORNE). WITH INTRO-

ductory Note by B. J. Snell, M.A.

8 BROWNE'S RELIGIO MEDICI, ETC. WITH INTRO-

duction by J. Addington Symonds.

9 SHELLEY'S ESSAYS AND LETTERS. EDITED, \VITH

Introductory Note, by Ernest Rhys.

10 SWIFT'S PROSE WRITINGS. CHOSEN AND ARRANGED,

•with Introduction, by Walter Lewin.

1 1 MY STUDY WINDOWS. BY TAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

With Introduction by R. Garnett, LL.D.

12 LOWELL'S ESSAYS ON THE ENGLISH POETS. WITH

a new Introduction by Mr. Lowell.

13 THE BIGLOW PAPERS. BY JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

With a Prefatory Note by Ernest Rhys.

London • WALTEK SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY— continued.

14 GREAT ENGLISH PAINTERS. SELECTED FROM

Cunningham's Lives. Edited by William Sharp.

15 BYRON'S LETTERS AND JOURNALS. SELECTED,

with Introduction, by Mathilda Blind.

16 LEIGH HUNT'S ESSAYS. WITH INTRODUCTION AND

Notes by Arthur Symons.

17 LONGFELLOW'S "HYPERION," " KAVANAH," AND

" The Trouveres." With Introduction by W. Tirebuck.

18 GREAT MUSICAL COMPOSERS. BY G. F. FERRIS.

Edited, with Introduction, by Mrs. William Sharp.

19 THE MEDITATIONS OF MARCUS AURELIUS. EDITED

by Alice Zimmern.

20 THE TEACHING OF EPICTETUS. TRANSLATED FROM

tke Greek, with Introduction and Notes, by T. W. Rolleston.

21 SELECTIONS FROM SENECA. WITH INTRODUCTION

by Walter Clode.

22 SPECIMEN DAYS IN AMERICA. BY WALT WHITMAN.

Eevised by the Author, with fresh Prefac*.

23 DEMOCRATIC VISTAS, AND OTHER PAPERS. BY

Walt Whitman. (Published by arrangement with the Author.)

24 WHITE'S NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. WITH

a Preface by Richard Jeff eries.

25 DEFOE'S CAPTAIN SINGLETON. EDITED, WITH

Introduction, by H. Halliday Sparling.

26 MAZZINI'S ESSAYS: LITERARY, POLITICAL, AND

Religious. With Introduction by William Clarke.

27 PROSE WRITINGS OF HEINE. WITH INTRODUCTION

by Havelock Ellis.

28 REYNOLDS'S DISCOURSES. WITH INTRODUCTION

by Ilelen Zimmern.

29 PAPERS OF STEELE AND ADDISON. EDITED BY

Walter Lewin.

30 BURNS'S LETTERS. SELECTED AND ARRANGED,

with Introduction, by J. Logie Robertson, M.A.

London: WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY— continued.

31 VOLSUNGA SAGA. WILLIAM MORRIS. WITH INTRO-

duction by H. H. Sparling.

32 SARTOR RESARTUS. BY THOMAS CARLYLE. WITH

Introduction by Ernest Rhys.

33 SELECT WRITINGS OF EMERSON. WITH INTRO-

duction by Percival Chubb.

34 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF LORD HERBERT. EDITED,

with an Introduction, by Will H. Dircks.

35 ENGLISH PROSE, FROM MAUNDEVILLE TO

Thackeray. Chosen and Edited by Arthur Galton.

36 THE PILLARS OF SpCIETY, AND OTHER PLAYS. BY

Henrik Ibsen. Edited, with an Introduction, by Havelock Ellis.

37 IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. EDITED AND

Selected by W. B. Teats.

38 ESSAYS OF DR. JOHNSON, WITH BIOGRAPHICAL

Introduction and Notes by Stuart J. Reid.

39 ESSAYS OF WILLIAM HAZLITT. SELECTED AND

Edited, with Introduction and Notes, by Frank Carr.

40 LANDOR'S PENTAMERON, AND OTHER IMAGINARY

Conversations. Edited, with a Preface, by H. Ellis.

41 POE'S TALES AND ESSAYS. EDITED, WITH INTRO

duction, by Ernest Rhys.

42 VICAR OF WAKEFIELD. BY OLIVER GOLDSMITH.

Edited, with Preface, by Ernest Rhys.

43 POLITICAL ORATIONS, FROM WENTWORTH TO

Macaulay. Edited, with Introduction, by William Clarke.

44 THE AUTOCRAT OF THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. BY

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

45 THE POET AT THE BREAKFAST-TABLE. BY OLIVER

Wendell Holmes.

46 THE PROFESSOR AT THE BREAKFAST- TABLE. BY

Oliver Wendell Holmes.

47 LORD CHESTERFIELD'S LETTERS TO HIS SON.

Selected, with Introduction, by Charles Sayle.

London • WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY— continued.

48 STORIES FROM CARLETON. SELECTED, WITH INTRO-

duction, by \V. Yeats,

49 JANE EYRE. BY CHARLOTTE BRONTE. EDITED BY-

Clement K. Shorter.

50 ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. EDITED BY LOTHROP

Withington, with a Preface by Dr. FurnivalL

51 THE PROSE WRITINGS OF THOMAS DAVIS. EDITED

by T. W. Rolleston.

52 SPENCE'S ANECDOTES. A SELECTION. EDITED,

with an Introduction and Notes, by John Underbill.

53 MORE'S UTOPIA, AND LIFE OF EDWARD V. EDITED,

with an Introduction, by Maurice Adams.

54 SADI'S GULISTAN, OR FLOWER GARDEN. TRANS-

lated, with an Essay, by James Ross.

55 ENGLISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES. EDITED BY

K. Sidney Harthtnd.

56 NORTHERN STUDIES. BY EDMUND GOSSE. WITH

a Note by Ernest Rhys.

57 EARLY REVIEWS OF GREAT WRITERS. EDITED BY

E. Stevenson.

58 ARISTOTLE'S ETHICS. WITH GEORGE HENRY

Lewes's Essay on Aristotle prefixed.

59 LANDOR'S PERICLES AND ASPASIA. EDITED, WITH

an Introduction, by Havelock Ellis.

60 ANNALS OF TACITUS. THOMAS GORDON'S TRANS-

lation. Edited, with an Introduction, by Arthur Galton.

61 ESSAYS OF ELLA. BY CHARLES LAMB. EDITED,

with an Introduction, by Ernest Rhys.

62 BALZAC'S SHORTER STORIES. TRANSLATED BY

William Wilson and the Count Stenbock.

63 COMEDIES OF DE MUSSET. EDITED, WITH AN

Introductory Note, by S. L. Gwynn.

64 CORAL REEFS. BY CHARLES DARWIN. EDITED,

with an Introduction, by Dr. J. W. Williams.

London: WALTEII SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY— continued.

65 SHERIDAN'S PLAYS. EDITED, WITH AN INTRO-
duction, by Rudolf Direks.

65 OUR VILLAGE. BY MISS MITFORD. EDITED, WITH
an Introduction, by Ernest Rhys.

67 MASTER HUMPHREY'S CLOCK, AND OTHER STORIES.

By Charles Dickens. With Introduction by Frank T. Marzials.

68 TALES FROM WONDERLAND. BY RUDOLPH

Baumbach. Translated by Helen B. Dole.

69 ESSAYS AND PAPERS BY DOUGLAS JERROLD. EDITED

by Walter Jerrold.

70 VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN. BY

Mary Wollstonecraft. Introduction by Mrs. E. Robins Pennell.

71 "THE ATHENIAN ORACLE." A SELECTION. EDITED

by John Underbill, with Prefatory Note by Walter Besant.

72 ESSAYS OF SAINT - BEUVE. TRANSLATED AND

Edited, with an Introduction, by Elizabeth Lee.

73 SELECTIONS FROM PLATO. FROM THE TRANS-

lation of Sydenham and Taylor. Edited by T. W. Rolleston.

74 HEINE'S ITALIAN TRAVEL SKETCHES, ETC. TRANS-

lated by Elizabeth A. Sharp. With an Introduction from the French of
Theophile Gautier.

75 SCHILLER'S MAID OF ORLEANS. TRANSLATED,

with an Introduction, by Major-General Patrick Maxwell.

76 SELECTIONS FROM SYDNEY SMITH. EDITED, WITH

an Introduction, by Ernest Rhys.

77 THE NEW SPIRIT. BY HAVELOCK ELLIS.

78 THE BOOK OF MTARVELLOUS ADVENTURES. FROM

the "Morte d'Arthur." Edited by Ernest Rhys. [This, together with
No. 1, forms the complete "Morte d'Arthur."]

79 ESSAYS AND APHORISMS. BY SIR ARTHUR HELPS.

With an Introduction by E. A. Helps.

80 ESSAYS OF MONTAIGNE. SELECTED, WITH A

Prefatory Note, by Percival Chubb.

81 THE LUCK OF BARRY LYNDON. BY W. M.

Thackeray. Edited by F. T. Marzials.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE SCOTT LIBRARY— continued.

82 SCHILLER'S WILLIAM TELL. TRANSLATED, WITH

an Introduction, by Major-General Patrick Maxwell.

83 CARLYLE'S ESSAYS ON GERMAN LITERATURE.

With an Introduction by Ernest Rhys.

84 PLAYS AND DRAMATIC ESSAYS OF CHARLES LAMB.

Edited, with an Introduction, by Rudolf Dircks.

85 THE PROSE OF WORDSWORTH. SELECTED AND

Edited, with an Introduction, by Professor William Knight.

86 ESSAYS, DIALOGUES, AND THOUGHTS OF COUNT

Giacomo Leopardi. Translated, with an Introduction and Notes, by
Major-General Patrick Maxwell.

87 THE INSPECTOR-GENERAL A RUSSIAN COMEDY.

By Nikolai V. Gogol. Translated from the original, with an Introduction
and Notes, by Arthur A. Sykes.

88 ESSAYS AND APOTHEGMS OF FRANCIS, LORD BACON:

Edited, with an Introduction, by John Buchan.

89 PROSE OF MILTON: SELECTED AND EDITED, WITH

an Introduction, by Richard Garnett, LL.D.

90 THE REPUBLIC OF PLATO. TRANSLATED BY

Thomas Taylor, with an Introduction by Theodore Wratislaw.

91 PASSAGES FROM FROISSART. WITH AN INTRO-

duction by Frank T. Marziala.

London: WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

GREAT WRITERS.

A NEW SERIES OF CRITICAL BIOGRAPHIES.

Edited by ERIC ROBERTSON and FRANK T. MARZIALS.
A Complete Bibliography to each Volume, by J. P. ANDERSON,
British Museum, London.

Cloth,' Uncut Edges, Gilt Top. Price 1/6.

VOLUMES ALREADY ISSUED —

LITE OF LONGFELLOW. By PROF. ERIC S. ROBERTSON.
" A most readable little work." — Liverpool Mercury.

LIFE OF COLERIDGE. By HALL CAINE.

"Brief and rigorous, written throughout with spirit and great literary
skill." — Scotsman.

LIFE OF DICKENS. By FRANK T. MARZIALS.

"Notwithstanding the mass of matter that has been printed relating
to Dickens and his works . . . we should, until we came across this volume,
have been at a loss to recommend any popular life of England's most popular
novelist as being really satisfactory. The difficulty is removed Toy Mr.
Marzials's little book." — Athenaeum.

LIFE OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI. By J. KNIGHT.

" Mr. Knight's picture of the great poet and painter is the fullest and
best yet presented to the public." — The Graphic.

LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. By COLONEL F. GRANT.

" Colonel Grant has performed his task with diligence, sound judgment,
good taste, and accuracy." — Illustrated London Xew».

LIFE OF DARWIN. By G. T. BETTANT.

" Mr. G. T. Bettany's Life of Darwin is a sound and conscientious work."
— Saturday Review.

LIFE OF CHARLOTTE BRONTE. By A. BIRRELL.

"Those who know much of Charlotte Bronte will learn more, and those
who know nothing about her will find all that is best worth learning in Mr.
Bin-ell's pleasant book." — St. Jamesf Gazette.

LIFE OF THOMAS CARLYLE. By R. GARNETT, LL.D.

"This is an admirable book. Nothing could be more felicitous and
fairer than the way in which he takes us through Carlyle's life and
works."— Pall Mall Gazette.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

GREAT WRITERS— continued.

LIFE OF ADAM SMITH. By R. B. HALDANE, M.P.

"Written with a perspicuity seldom exemplified when dealing with
economic science."— Scotsman.

LIFE OF KEATS. By W. M. ROSSETTI.

"Valuable for the ample information which it contains."— Cambridye
Independent.

LIFE OF SHELLEY. By WILLIAM SHARP.

"The criticisms . . . entitle this capital monograph to be ranked with
the best biographies of Shelley."— Westminster Review.

LIFE OF SMOLLETT. By DAVID HANNAY.

"A capable record of a writer who still remains one of the great masters
of the English novel."— Saturday Review.

LIFE OF GOLDSMITH. By AUSTIN DOBSON.

"The story of his literary and social life in London, with all its humorous
and pathetic vicissitudes, is here retold, as none could tell it better." — Daily
A'ews.

LIFE OF SCOTT. By PROFESSOR YONGE.

"This is a most enjoyable book."— Aberdeen Free Presg.

LIFE OF BURNS. By PROFESSOR BLACKIS.

" The editor certainly made a hit when he persuaded Blackie to write
about Burns." — Pall Mall Gazette.

LIFE OF VICTOR HUGO. By FRANK T. MARZIALS.

"Mr. Marzials's volume presents to us, in a more handy form than any
English or even French handbook gives, the summary of what is known
about the life of the great poet." — Saturday Review.

LIFE OF EMERSON. By RICHARD GARNETT, LL.D.

"No record of Emerson's life could be more desirable." — Saturday Review.

LIFE OF GOETHE. By JAMES SIME.

" Mr. James Sime's competence as a biographer of Goethe is beyond
question."— Manchester Guardian.

LIFE OF CONGREVE. By EDMUND GOSSE.

" Mr. Gos~e has written an admirable biography." — Academy.

LIFE OF BUNYAN. By CANON VENABLES.

"A most intelligent, appreciative, and valuable memoir." — Scots-man.

LIFE OF CRABBE. By T. E. KEBBEL.

" No English poet since Shakespeare has observed certain aspects of
nature and of human life more closely." — Athenaeum.

LIFE OF HEINE. By WILLIAM SHARP.

" An admirable monograph . . . more fully written up to the level of
recent knowledge and criticism than any other English work."— Scotsman.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

GREAT . WRITERS-continued.
LIFE OF MILL. By W. L. COURTNEY.

"A most sympathetic and discriminating memoir." — Glasgow Herald.
LIFE OF SCHILLER. By HENRY W. NKVINSON.

"Presents the poet's life in a neatly rounded picture."— Scotsman.
LIFE OF CAPTAIN MARRYAT. By DAVID HANNAY.

"We have nothing but praise for the manner in which Mr. Hannay has
done justice to him." — Saturday Review.

LIFE OF LESSING. By T. W. ROLLESTON.

" One of the best books of the series."— Manchester Guardian.

LIFE OF MILTON. By RICHARD GARNKIT, LL.D.

" Has never been more charmingly or adequately told."— Scottith Leader.

LIFE OF BALZAC. By FREDERICK WBDIIORK.

" Mr. Wedmore's monograph on the greatest of French writers of fiction,
whose greatness is to be measured by comparison with his successors, is a
piece of careful and critical composition, neat and nice in style."— Daily
A'tirs.

LIFE OF GEORGE ELIOT. By OSCAR BROWNINO.

"A book of the character of Mr. Browning's, to stand midway be-
tween the bulky work of Mr. Cross and the very slight sketch of Miss
Blind, was much to be desired, and Mr. Browning has done his work with
vivacity, and not without skilL" — Manchester Guardian.

LIFE OF JANE AUSTEN. By GOLDWIN SMITH.

"Mr. Goldwin Smith has added another to the not inconsiderable roll
of eminent men who have found their delight in Miss Austen. . . . His
little book upon her, just published by Walter Scott, is certainly a fas-
cinating book to those who already know her and love her well ; and we
have little doubt that it will prove also a fascinating book to those who
have still to make her acquaintance."— Spectator.

LIFE OF BROWNING. By WILLIAM SHARP.

" This little volume is a model of excellent English, and in every respect
it seems to us what a biography should be." — Public Opinion.

LIFE OF BYRON. By HON. RODEN NOKL.

" The Hon. Roden Noel's volume on Byron is decidedly one of the most
readable in the excellent ' Great Writers ' series."— Scottish Leader.

LIFE OF HAWTHORNE. By MONCURB CONWAY.

" It is a delightful causerie — pleasant, genial talk about a most interest-
ing man. Easy and conversational as the tone is throughout, no important
fact is omitted, no valueless fact is recalled ; and it is entirely exempt from
platitude and conventionality." — The Speaker.

LIFE OF SCHOPENHAUER. By PROFESSOR WALLACE.

"We can speak very highly of this little book of Mr. Wallace's. It
is, perhaps, excessively lenient in dealing with the man, and it cannot
be said to be at all ferociously critical in dealing with the philosophy."—
Saturday Review.

London: WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

GREAT WRITBRS-continued.
LIFE OF SHERIDAN. By LLOYD SANDERS.

"To say that Mr. Lloyd Sanders, in this little volume, has produced the
best existing memoir of Sheridan, is really to award much fainter praise
than the work deserves." — Manchester Examiner.

LIFE OF THACKERAY. By HERMAN MKRIVALE and F. T. MAKZIALS.
"The monograph just published is well worth reading, . . . and the book,
with its excellent bibliography, is one which neither the student nor the
general reader can well afford to miss." — Pall Mall Gazette.

LIFE OF CERVANTES. By H. E. WATTS.

" We can commend this book as a worthy addition to the useful series
to which it belongs." — London Daily Chronicle

LIFE OF VOLTAIRE. By FRANCIS ESPINASSE.

George Saintsbury, in The Illustrated London News, says: — "In this
little volume the wayfaring man who has no time to devour libraries will
find most things that it concerns him to know about Voltaire's actual life
and work put very clearly, sufficiently, and accurately for the most part."

LIFE OF LEIGH HUNT. By COSMO MONKHOUSE.

" Mr. Monkhouse has brought together and skilfully set in order much
widely scattered material . . . candid as well as sympathetic." — The
Athenaeum.

LIFE OF WHITTIER. By W. J. LINTON.

" Well written, and well worthy to stand with preceding volumes in the
useful ' Great Writers ' series." — Black and White.

LIBRARY EDITION OF " GREAT WRITERS," Demy 8vo, 2s. 6d.

London • WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

BOOKS OF FAIRY TALES.

Crown 8vo, Cloth Elegant, Price 3/6 per Vol.

ENGLISH FAIRY AND OTHER
FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY EDWIN SIDNEY HARTLAND.
With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by CHARLES E. BROCK.

SCOTTISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS, BART.
With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by JAMES TORRANCE.

IRISH FAIRY AND FOLK TALES.

Selected and Edited, with an Introduction,

BY W. B. YEATS.
With Twelve Full-Page Illustrations by JAMES TORRANCE.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

SELECTED THREE-VOL. SETS

IN NEW BROCADE BINDING.

6s. PER SET, IN SHELL CASE TO MATCH.

Also Bound in Roan, in Shell Case, Price 95. per Set.

O. W. Holmes Set—

Autocrat of the Breakfast-
Table.

Professor at the Breakfast-
Table.

Poet at the Breakfast-Table.

Landor Set —

Lander's Imaginary Conver-
sations.
Pentameron.
Pericles and Aspasia.

Three English Essayists —
Essays of Elia.
Essays of Leigh Hunt.
Essays of William Hazlitt.

Three Classical Moralisls-
Meditations of Marcus

Aurelius.

Teaching of Epictetus.
Morals of Seneca.

Walden Set—
Thoreau's Walden.
Thoreau's Week.
Thoreau's Selections.

Famous Letters Set —
Letters of Byron.
Letters of Chesterfield.
Letters of Burns.

Lowell Set —

My Study Windows.
The English Poets.
The Biglow Papers.

Heine Set —
Life of Heine.
Heine's Prose.
Heine's Travel- Sketches

Three Essayists —
Essays of Mazzini.
Essays of Sainte-Beuve.
Essays of Montaigne.

Schiller Set —
Life of Schiller.
Maid of Orleans.
William Tell.

Carlyle Set —
Life of Carlyle.
Sartor Resartus.
Carlyle's German Essays.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

IBSEN'S PROSE DRAMAS.

EDITED BY WILLIAM ARCHER.

Complete in Five Vols. Crown 8vo, Cloth, Price 3/6 each.
Set of Five Vols., in Case, 17/6; in Half Morocco, in Case, 32/6.

" We seem at last to be shown men and women as they are ; and at first it
is more than -we can endure. . . . All Ibsen's characters speak and act as if
they were hypnotised, and under their creators imperious demand to reveal
themselves. There never was such a mirror held up to nature before : it is
too terrible. . . . Yet we must return to Ibsen, with his remorseless surgery t
his remorseless electric-light, itntil we, too, have grown strong and learned to
face the naked — if necessary, the flayed and bleeding— reality." — SPEAKER
(London).

VOL. I. "A DOLL'S HOUSE," "THE LEAGUE OF
YOUTH," and "THE PILLARS OF SOCIETY." With
Portrait of the Author, and Biographical Introduction by
WILLIAM ARCHER.

VOL. II. <( GHOSTS," "AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE,"
and "THE WILD DUCK." With an Introductory Note.

VOL. III. "LADY INGER OF OSTRAT," "THE VIKINGS
AT HELGELAND," "THE PRETENDERS." With an
Introductory Note and Portrait of Ibsen.

VOL. IV. "EMPEROR AND GALILEAN." With an
Introductory Note by WILLIAM ARCHER.

VOL. V. "ROSMERSHOLM," "THE LADY FROM THE
SEA," "HEDDA GABLER." Translated by WILLIAM
ARCHER. With -an Introductory Note.

The sequence of the plays in each vohime is chronological ; the complete
set of volumes comprising the dramas thus presents them in chronological
order.

" The art of prose translation does not perhaps enjoy a very high literary
status in England, but we have no hesitation in numbering the present
version of Ibsen, so far as it has gone (Vols. I. and II.), among the very
bestr achievements, in that kind, of our generation." — Academy.

" We have seldom, if ever, met with a translation so absolutely
idiomatic." — Glasgow Herald.

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

THE CANTERBURY POETS.

EDITED BY WILLIAM SHARP. Is I/- MONTHLY VOLUMES.

Cloth, Red Edges - Is.

Cloth, Uncut Edges - Is. Pad. Morocco, Gilt Edges, 5s.

Red Roan, Gilt Edges, 2s. 6d.

THE CHRISTIAN YEAR By the Rev. John Keble.

COLERIDGE Edited by Joseph Skipsey.

LONGFELLOW Edited by Eva Hope.

CAMPBELL Edited by John Hogbe*.

SHELLEY Edited by Joseph Skipsey.

WORDSWORTH Edited by A. J. Symington.

BLAKE Edited by Joseph-Skipsey.

WHITTIER Edited by Eva Hope.

POE Edited by Joseph Skipsey.

CHATTERTON Edited by John Richmond.

BURNS. Poems Edited by Joseph Skipsey.

BURNS. Songs Edited by Joseph Skipsey.

MARLOWE Edited by Percy E. Pinkerton.

KEATS Edited by John Hogben.

HERBERT Edited by Ernest Rhys.

HUGO Translated by Dean Carrington.

COWPER Edited by Eva Hope.

SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS, Etc. Edited by William Sharp.

EMERSON Edited by Walter Lewin.

SONNETS OF THIS CENTURY Edited by William Sharp.

WHITMAN Edited by Ernest Rhys.

SCOTT. Marmion, etc Edited by William Sharp.

SCOTT. Lady of the Lake, etc. Edited by William Sharp.

PRAED Edited by Frederick Cooper.

HOGG Edited by his Daughter, Mrs. Garden.

GOLDSMITH Edited by \VilliamTirebuck.

LOVE LETTERS. Etc By Eric Mackay.

SPENSER Edited by Hon. Roden Noel.

CHILDREN OF THE POETS Edited by Eric S. Robertson.

JONSON Edited by J. Addington Symonds.

BYRON (2 Vols.) Edited by Mathilde Blind.

THE SONNETS OF EUROPE Edited by S. Waddington.

RAMSAY Edited by J. Logie Robertson.

DOBELL Edited by Mrs. DobelL

London : WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Squara.

THE CANTERBURY POETS— continued.

DATS OF THE YEAS With Introduction by William Sharp

POPE Edited by John Hogbeni

HEINE Edited by Mrs. Kroeker.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER Edited by John S. Fletcher.

BOV/LES, IiAMB, &c Edited by William Tirebuck.

EARLY ENGLISH POETRY Edited by H. Macaulay Fitegibbon.

SEA MUSIC Edited by Mrs Sharp.

HERRICK '. Edited by Ernest Rhys.

BALLADES AND RONDEAUS Edited by J. Gleeson WhHa.

IRISH MINSTRELSY Edited by H. Halliday Sparling.

MILTON'S PARADISE LOST Edited by J. Brad»haw, M.A., LL.D.

JACOBITE BALLADS Edited by G. S. Macqnoid.

AUSTRALIAN BALLADS Edited by D. B. W. Sladen, B.A.

MOORE Edited by John Derrian.

BORDER BALLADS Edited by Graham K. Tomaon.

SONG-TIDE By Philip Bourke Maiston.

ODES OF HORACE Translations by Sir Stephen de Vere, Bt.

OSSIAN Edited by Georg* Eyre-Todd.

ELFIN MUSIC Edited by Arthur Edward Wait*.

SOUTHEY Edited by Sidney E. Thompson.

CHAUCER Edited by Frederick Noel Paton.

POEMS OF WILD LIFE Edited by Charles G. D. Roberta. M. A.

PARADISE REGAINED Edited by J. Bradshaw, M. A., LL.D.

CRABBE Edited by E. Lampleugh.

DORA GREENWELL Edited by William Dorling.

JPAUST Edited by Elizabeth Craigmyle.

AMERICAN SONNETS Edited by William Sharp.

LANDOR'S POEMS Edited by Ernest Badford.

GREEK ANTHOLOGY Edited by Graham B. Tomson.

HUNT AND HOOD Edited by J. Harwood Panting.

HUMOROUS POEMS Edited by Ralph H. Caine.

LYTTON'S PLAYS Edited by R. Farquharson Sharp.

GREAT ODES Edited by William Sharp.

MEREDITH'S POEMS Edited by M. Betham-Ed wards.

PAINTER-POETS.. ~ ~ Edited by Kiaeton Parkes.

WOMEN POETS Edited by Mrs. Sharp.

LOVE LYRICS Edited by Percy Hulburd.

AMERICAN HUMOROUS VERSE Edited by James Barr.

MINOR SCOTCH LYRICS Edited by Sir George Douglas.

CAVALIER LYRISTS Edited by Will H. Dircks.

GERMAN BALLADS Edited by Elizabeth Craigmyle.

SONGS OF BERANGER Translated by William Toynbee.

HON. RODEN NOEL'S POEMS. With an Introduction by B, Buchanan.
SONGS OF FREEDOM. Selected, with an Introduction, by H. S. bait.
CANADIAN POEMS AND LAYS .... Edited by W. D. Lighthall, M.A.
CONTEMPORARY SCOTTISH VERSE. Edited by Sir Geo. Douglas.

POEMS OF NATURE Kdited by E. W. Kinder.

CRADLE SONGS Kdited by Grace tthya.

NEW EDITION IN NEW BINDING.

In the new edition there are added about forty reproductions
in fac-simile of autographs of distinguished singers and instru-
mentalists, including Sarasate, Joachim, Sir Charles Halle,
' ''aderewsky, Stavenhagen, Henachel, Trebelli, Miss Macintyre,
Jean Ge'rard y, etc.

Quarto, cloth, elegant, gilt edges, emblematic design on

cover, 6s. May also be had in a variety

of Fancy Bindings.

THE

Music OF THE POETS :

A MUSICIANS' BIRTHDAY BOOK.

EDITED BY ELEONORE D'ESTERRE KEELING.

THIS is a unique Birthday Book. Against each date are
given the names of musicians whose birthday it is, together
with a verse-quotation appropriate to the character of their
different compositions or performances. A special feature of
the book consists in the reproduction in fac-simile of auto-
graphs, and autographic music, of living composers. Three
sonnets by Mr. Theodore Watts, on the "Fausts" of. Berlioz,
Schumann, and Gounod, have been written specially for this
volume. It is illustrated with designs of various musical
instruments, etc.; autographs of Rubenstein, Dvorak, Greig,
Mackenzie, Villiers Stanford, etc., etc.

London •. WALTER SCOTT, LIMITED, Paternoster Square.

University of California

SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

Return this material to the library

from which it was borrowed.

UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY

A 000162898 1